Artist Brad Kahlhamer (left) and Dan Mills discuss their co-curated exhibition, “Exploding Native Inevitable,” at its opening on Jan. 11, 2024. Photo by Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College

Dan Mills, director of the Bates College Museum of Art and lecturer in the humanities, will retire at the end of December. He has spent 14 years at the college and overseen dozens of exhibitions in his tenure. Before he heads into retirement, he considered a perfect day at Bates. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. 

I get up quite early and have a fairly modest and quick breakfast at home – just good coffee and simple, high-fiber cereal – in order to then drive downtown to the Pepperell Mill complex, where I have my studio. I’ve managed to keep my art practice quite active by learning how to work around my fairly rigorous job of being director and curator at the Bates College Museum of Art. So I may go down and spend less than an hour doing one step on an artwork I’m working on. I’m currently working on a four-panel map of the world that’s 8-by-14 feet. Just do one step, make a little progress, and throw my coat and hat on and drive the couple of miles to the museum.

There, my workday will usually start with going in the office, checking in on emails, news of Bates and of the art world. Then catch up with the staff on the events of the day and the week and what’s pressing in their world. I’m so happy to have a staff of really fine professionals who each really lead their respective areas, whether it’s education or curatorial or collections management and registration. The interesting thing about museum work is that people come in and see the show that’s up, but usually our heads are focused on the next exhibition or the one after. We’re deeply, deeply involved, even though we’re delighted people are coming in to see the work we’ve done, it’s essentially past tense by the time it’s seen in the museum. It’s all done.

Once we’ve touched base, my ideal thing would be to take an art break and really walk around and look at the exhibitions. Just slow down and enjoy the work that’s on view. It may seem funny, but it’s so easy to have done all the work and then not take the time to just fully appreciate it, right?

A bagel sandwich from Forage is part of Dan Mills perfect day. Photo by Avery Yale Kamila

And then often what I will do is hop in the car and dash back down to the studio and see if what I did is drying OK, and maybe do one other half-hour step and come back to the museum after lunch. I may pop into Forage and get a bagel sandwich. They have one called “The Squealer.” Their breakfast sandwiches are amazing, and they’re usually piled high and kind of wonderfully messy to eat. A multi-napkin sandwich, you know, happily.

And after that, it’s probably once again doing the work of the museum. On a good day, it may be talking to colleagues in a similar position to me. We’re members of a number of groups, such as the Maine Art Museum Trail, and we have some great colleagues in that group.

One of my favorite definitions of what an artist is is (someone) who makes something from nothing. They take materials and ideas and put something together that, had they not done, would not exist. And I think similar thoughts about developing contemporary exhibitions. For example, the recent “Exploding Native Inevitable” exhibition, it didn’t exist. Brad Kahlhamer – a wonderful, amazing, Indigenous artist and a vital partner in this project – we spent years looking at artists and talking about artists, meeting and discussing people and creating the shape of what the exhibition became.

I’m married to artist Gail Skudera. At the end of the day, we have a pattern of catching up and making and having a meal together. It might or might not involve having a martini, for me.

I’ve, for many years, balanced my two careers quite effectively. I think I’ve been fairly efficient with my time. My career has really been spent focusing on developing exhibitions and programs that promote the work of contemporary artists, mostly. I have loved that and met so many amazing people and connected them with audiences and learned so much from them. But having said that, I’m looking forward to putting more of my attention on this artist.