Newfields’ latest CEO brings financial background to museum leadership

Le Monte Booker, former chief financial officer of Chicago’s iconic Field Museum, doesn’t need to be a peerless expert in paintings and sculptures to succeed in his new role as CEO of the Newfields art museum and gardens.

He’s the supervisor of 300 Newfields employees, interns and fellows, including Belinda Tate, director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and Jonathan Wright, director of The Garden and of the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park.

While Tate and Wright are focused on exhibitions and experiences on the 152-acre campus at the intersection of West 38th Street and Michigan Road, Booker can dig into administrative and financial tasks.

It’s an executive structure Newfields unveiled in February 2021 but one that wasn’t put into action until Booker began his tenure in October. Arriving after a series of controversies delayed the implementation of the new executive pyramid, Booker will be assessed on the basis of his operational skills.

“My role is focused on what it takes to run a high-functioning, very effective institution,” Booker said during a December interview at his Newfields office. “How do we make sure that we’re delivering on our promise? This also allows my role to focus a lot on philanthropy, which is greatly needed.”

When Booker and Grace Meils, vice president of advancement at Newfields, pursue fundraising and development opportunities, they represent a nonprofit that’s spent the early part of the decade mired in turmoil:

◗ Associate Curator of American Art Kelli Morgan, who was hired to organize culturally diverse galleries at the museum, resigned in 2020 and cited a toxic and discriminatory work environment when announcing her exit.

◗ CEO Charles Venable resigned in 2021, following a job posting (for the new role of Indianapolis Museum of Art director ultimately filled by Tate in November 2023) that referenced a need to maintain “the museum’s traditional, core, white art audience” while attempting to attract guests from all backgrounds.

◗ Venable’s successor, Colette Pierce Burnette, served as Newfields’ first Black top executive from August 2022 until November 2023—when her departure was abrupt and unexplained. Newfields provided no comment on Burnette’s exit, citing a policy of not discussing details of internal employment matters.

◗ Six board members stepped down in the weeks before and after the announcement of Burnette’s exit.

Booker expressed no interest in discussing Newfields’ recent past. After all, he said, he wasn’t here during that time.

“There are so many opportunities that we have,” he said. “What I will do as the new president and CEO is focus heavily on the future of this organization: How we can get things right, how we can do the best work, how we can bring people in and make sure they’re having a positive experience, how to assure that the employees who work here are clear on how much we value them and their service and how privileged we are that they are giving this institution a piece and part of their lives.”

Mark Williams, executive director of Indy Art Center, told IBJ that all cultural organizations in the city can benefit if Newfields meets the goals outlined by Booker.

“It’s one of Indianapolis’ oldest and largest and obviously most visible arts organizations,” he said of Newfields, which originated in 1883 as the Art Association of Indianapolis.

“Newfields plays a key role in our city’s creative infrastructure and in our national reputation,” Williams said. “So the ability for institutions like the Indy Art Center to fulfill our mission is affected by the perceptions cast by Newfields. We’re all ultimately affected. As such, we really need Newfields to be strong and welcoming to everyone, and we need it to be an inspiring example in our creative world.”

Williams, who recently began a term as president of the Indianapolis Consortium of Arts Administrators, said he attended a dinner and reception that Booker hosted at Newfields.

“I will say that Le Monte is doing all the right things,” Williams said. “He’s meeting people. He’s asking the critical and tough questions. But leadership and change is certainly about more than just one individual. It has to be embraced from the front lines to the boardroom. I’m cautiously optimistic about his enthusiasm and his eagerness to become ingrained in the local community.”

Art appreciation

Although Booker isn’t expected to be an expert in art and nature, the 56-year-old rhapsodizes about seven sweetgum trees that populate Nonie’s Garden—a verdant display near the entrance of the museum.

A plaque at Nonie’s Garden reads, “Here marks the passage between art and nature, nature and art, for in reality, they are one.”

“If you walk our grounds, you will see how our staff creates art from nature—the tremendous amount of time that they spend positioning flowers, bushes, horticulture, where they place it, thinking about what time of the year these species are going to bloom or not,” Booker said. “Placing flowers, bushes and shrubbery in the exact right place at the right time creates an amazing canvas and an amazing work of art itself.”

Booker said it was easy to accept the job offer to lead Newfields.

“This is really a place that I want to be,” he said. “In my opinion, it checks all the boxes.”

Booker grew up in Chicago and earned post-secondary degrees from two Chicago schools: DePaul University and DeVry University’s Keller Graduate School of Management.

“As a person coming from challenging neighborhoods in Chicago, I know that institutions like Newfields can have a transformative impact on the lives of young people when they experience it for the first time,” he said.

Booker said he devoted much of his first two months on the job to learning about Newfields “from the inside out.” Now is the time, he said, to engage the community.

“We want to be partners with our local schools,” he said. “We want to be partners with local institutions that are trying to improve the community and make Indianapolis as a whole a better and stronger place. The only way you’re going to do that is by being connected. You have to be out there, you have to be listening, and you have to think about how what you’re hearing should shape how you make decisions about the organization’s future.”

Work in progress

A community advisory committee Newfields established as part of its 2021 action plan focused on diversity, equity, inclusion and access continues to meet, according to the museum. And internal diversity training remains part of “Newfields University” courses for employees, Booker said.

Another component of the plan was a five-year commitment to purchase works by artists who are Black, Indigenous, of color and from marginalized backgrounds.

Art collector John Thompson—CEO of Thompson Distribution Co. and the first Black man to serve as board chair of Newfields—said paintings by Black artists are increasingly difficult to afford.

“We have some work to do in our collections,” said Thompson, who served as Indianapolis Museum of Art chair from 2004 to 2006. “We have a top collection of impressionist paintings when you talk about Monet, Gauguin and Van Gogh. … But we missed the boat in many of the African American categories. It’s going to cost us a fair amount of money to collect that today. Paintings that were $10,000 in 1997 are $10 million today. That’s seriously missing the boat.”

Thompson said he met Booker briefly during the annual Governor’s Luncheon for Scouting on Dec. 18 at Lucas Oil Stadium.

“He seems like a nice guy, and he seems to have a strong museum background,” said Thompson, who presently has no formal ties to the museum. “I’m very optimistic.”

Regarding Black artists from Indiana, Thompson said John Wesley Hardrick (1891–1968) is valued by collectors, along with William Edouard Scott (1884–1964) and William Majors (1930–1982).

Newfields has three Hardrick paintings in its collection, one by Scott and more than a dozen works by Majors.

Thompson is lending art from his personal collection to the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites for the exhibition “John Wesley Hardrick: Through the Eyes of the Artist,” which is scheduled to open Feb. 22.

Money matters

Indiana State Museum CEO Cathy Ferree met Booker before he started his CEO stint at Newfields. She invited him to lunch in Chicago when she was headed to the city for a conference shortly after Booker’s hiring was announced.

She said Booker’s experience as a chief financial officer should serve him well in his new role.

“In our business today, we’re as much about data as everybody else,” said Ferree, who’s served as Indiana State Museum CEO since 2017. “His understanding of data and numbers and all of those things will give him a leg up on leadership and a good understanding of what he’s looking for and how to move forward.”

Thompson, a former Mays Chemical Co. executive, agreed with Ferree’s perspective.

“If you’re the CFO of an organization, you see everything in detail,” Thompson said. “That exposure certainly would give him a lot of knowledge of the museum world and every aspect of it.”

Booker said his leadership style is guided by an institution’s mission and values.

“At the end of the day, if you are not delivering on mission and values, it is simply not clear why you’re here to begin with,” he said. “Unlike a for-profit company, I believe that nonprofit organizations have the increased challenge of a sort of ‘double bottom line.’ We need to be heavily focused on mission, but we also have to focus on the bottom line. Mission really comes first, but I also believe strongly in operational excellence.”

Newfields operates on a $35 million annual budget. The institution has $90 million in building and land assets, more than $350 million in endowment assets and an art collection of 43,000 works.

When Booker left the Field Museum, the institution founded in 1893 had $600 million in endowment assets, he said.

“As the old saying goes, the endowment is the gift that keeps on giving,” Booker said. “We need to make sure that our endowment is very, very healthy and growing and well stewarded. Of course, as any institution, we have growing costs. We’re dealing with inflationary challenges and so forth. We need to make sure that we’re stewarding our resources and finding ways to attract more visitors.”•