Her phone rang while Rebecca Ibel stood at a Short North construction site last month.
It was her boss, Ron Pizzuti — except he didn’t answer her greeting.
“Butt dial,” she said.
The phone rang again, and this time Pizzuti was on the other end, asking whether she would wait for him to check on the project’s progress. He arrived several minutes later in jeans and sunglasses.
Pizzuti is no stranger to construction zones. He founded Pizzuti Cos., which markets, manages and develops real estate — including Miranova, his high-rise office and residential complex that is a jewel of the Downtown skyline.
But the Short North site is different. He is restoring an 18,000-square-foot historic building so he can share with the public his personal art collection — considered among the top 200 in the world by ARTnews magazine.
“It is a great opportunity for the community,” said Nannette V. Maciejunes, executive director of the Columbus Museum of Art. “Word is out in the broader arts community. It will be a great moment. We can’t wait.”
Pizzuti has tapped Ibel as his point person for the Pizzuti Collection, which is near completion, but the grand opening won’t take place until next year — spring at the earliest.
“She got the dream job,” said Duff Lindsay, owner of Lindsay Gallery in the Short North.
It is not uncommon for private collectors to build museums to showcase their work, said Milton Esterow, editor and publisher of ARTnews; he cited an example of a Maryland billionaire, Mitchell Rales, who plans to construct a 125,000-square-foot gallery at his Potomac estate. “It’s kind of a hot trend,” Maciejunes said.
Nevertheless, the gallery is “a big deal” for Columbus, Lindsay said.
Ibel was well-positioned for the challenge when Pizzuti asked her in 2011 to become curator and director of the collection. She knew him from running the Rebecca Ibel Gallery in the Short North for 18 years (which she has since closed).“We did a lot of business together,” Pizzuti said.” She knows my taste, how I approach collecting. We are a good fit.”
There is more to her job than figuring out where to hang pictures on a wall, which is no small feat in itself. She has had to study Pizzuti’s portfolio — a vast range of contemporary and modern works in various mediums. Artists range from the famous, such as Frank Stella, to the unknown. Pizzuti collects in-depth (multiple pieces from the same artist) and supports young talent. Ibel had to learn a lot about many artists in a relatively short time.
She has also acted as a project manager of the multimillion-dollar redo of the United Commercial Travelers building on 632 N. Park St. She has renovated her Victorian Village home and turned a gas station into a gallery space, but those rehabs pale compared with converting a former office for insurance agents into a home for an internationally recognized art collection.
Ibel learned to read architectural drawings and deal with building codes — as well as work with electricians, plumbers and other contractors. One trouble spot: light switches. They don’t go in the same places in a gallery as in a house or business (every inch is necessary for exhibiting art).
Ibel’s artistic challenge, Maciejunes said, is to look for “new ways to create conversations” with the pieces in the collection, then create a “conversation between the collection and the community.”
In fact, the space will be more than a gallery. The library, with its academic work and rare exhibition catalogs, will be available in particular to art students. Also due: tours, events and a lecture series.The educational features, said Greater Columbus Arts Council President Milt Baughman, “are really important assets.”
Until she moved her office to the Short North building in late October, Ibel worked in a cramped space at Miranova, with architectural drawings spilling out of a shelf, a scale model of the gallery on her desk and a white board covered with photos of individual pieces. The white board and scale model were her playgrounds to visualize possible exhibitions.
And, almost every workday, she stopped at the construction site to inspect the progress and coax revisions from the work crew, particularly regarding those light switches. Her viewing started on the grounds, which will feature outdoor sculptures, such as two concrete benches embedded with architectural remnants from the almost-100-year-old structure (glass fragments, a door handle, elevator buttons) — “like a history of the building,” Ibel said.
The top two floors of the three-story building will showcase most of the art. The walls and ceilings are all white, except for a black-box video room and a couple of other spaces.
The initial image to greet visitors will be a large, framed depiction of the Brooklyn Bridge created from thousands of fishhooks.“It’s really cool,” Ibel said. “I want the first experience to be ‘Ooh.’ ”
The wow space is in the back of the third floor. As big as a ballroom, it features a 17-foot ceiling with curved arches. Ibel can do some serious curatorial work there. Nearby is Pizzuti’s spacious office overlooking Goodale Park.Once the building is open for public viewing, much of the early emphasis will be on his newfound passion: Cuban art. He has made a few trips to the island nation, the most recent one with Ibel, to purchase works directly from artists.“It is a fascinating place, both tragic and phenomenal,” Ibel said.
The display of Cuban works is “not a political statement,” she added. “It’s about the art. There are pieces you won’t see anywhere else.”
When he arrived at the construction site on that September afternoon, Pizzuti moved purposefully through the building. The same keen eye for art also noticed small details as he pointed out chipped marble on a step or a dirty footprint on a carpet.
After running her own business for so many years, Ibel works for a hands-on boss, who, just like her, has strong opinions. So what happens if there’s a dispute?“I win,” Pizzuti said with a big laugh.
Minutes later, though, he made a point to show that he is open to persuasive argument by citing a disagreement that Ibel won over the Cuban art display.
“He’s very tenacious,” Ibel said.
“But so am I.”