Michener Art Museum's retired founding director returns with new exhibition

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (WPVI) -- Paid Sponsor Partnership: Philadelphia Corporation for Aging

When Bruce Katsiff was hired as director of the Michener in 1989, it was an arts center, but he had bigger plans.

"I wanted to start a museum," says Katsiff, Founding Director of the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pa. "And that was a daunting challenge, you know? This is a community rich with world-class museums."

A core collection was built from Bucks County's backyard, so to speak.

"We made a decision that we would take a narrow perspective on our collecting efforts, that we would collect artists from this region," he says.

During his 23-year tenure, Katsiff grew the museum. He worked to get iconic pieces installed and had physical rooms built as well.

"The Nakashima Room, I think, is a wonderful piece of the museum's property," he says.

And now, Katsiff's own work is on the walls.

"The title is 'Pieces of a Life,'" he says. "This is a retrospective."

It's his first time exhibiting at the Michener, but his collection of photographs spans six-decades of work.

He says coming back to the museum after he's been retired is "joyous for me."

There are five different groups of pictures, which include a sampling of his 'Face Maps' series. He says the works are "digitally all reconstructed."

"I first became interested in photography when I was a student. I was a student at Central High School in Philadelphia," he says. "And eventually I went to Rochester Institute of Technology."

He moved to Lumberville, Pennsylvania in the late 1960s, where taking photos of his new neighbors led to a collection called 'River Town Portraits.'

"I've worked in kind of ten-year cycles," he says. "I love the photograph's ability to capture an enormous amount of detail."

In a work called 'The Sleep of Peace,' Katsiff says he captures the transitional period "as we go from life to death."

It's part of his 'Nature Morte' series.

"I was looking for ways that I could find beauty in objects that we're normally forced to turn away from," he says. "And I was basically photographing bones and other found objects."

Some of these photos he passed around so other artists could add to them.

"It was really unusual to do these collaborative works," he says. "They've also never been exhibited before."

Katsiff's work will be on view at the Michener Art Museum until August 2, 2026.

"Museums are really fabulous places," he says. "I hope my legacy is simply that this institution continues."

Katsiff will be giving a talk on the 'History of Photography Before the Digital Revolution' on Wednesday, May 13 from 1 p.m. - 2 p.m. at the Michener Art Museum.

For more information:

Michener Art Museum
Bruce Katsiff - "Pieces of a Life"
Tickets for Artist Talk - 'History of Photography Before the Digital Revolution with Bruce Katsiff'

Michener Art Museum
138 S. Pine Street
Doylestown, PA 18901