Max Hollein, the somewhat new director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, has some ideas that could be "leading to a rebirth of the Bay Area’s largest visual arts organization," reports Charles Desmarais of the San Francisco Chronicle. Clearly defining the concepts of the two different museums -- the de Young and the Legion of Honor -- will be foremost. 

Hollein tells the Chronicle of his plans for building out an "intellectual infrastructure." For one, “all of the major shows next year will have multimedia, free, digital pre-courses that you can take — so you can have a richer experience seeing the show."

Original programming will be paramount, with a focus on “invigorating the internal capacity to come up with genuine curatorial content that’s based on our own scholarship, knowledge and understanding of the collection.” 

“Now is the time for the curators within the institution to step up,” he tells the Chronicle.

Expect an expansion of themes, from the fashion of Islam to the "racier side of art history," namely the upcoming, “Casanova: The Pursuit of Pleasure.”

The museums also recently announced a new contemporary arts initiative and the appointment of Claudia Schmuckli as Curator-in-Charge, Contemporary Art and Programming.

“We want to be bold and playful,” said Hollein in a statement. “In addition to continuing our tradition of presenting important retrospectives, such as the recent Ed Ruscha and current Frank Stella exhibitions, we plan to use our two unique spaces in their extraordinary park settings as major platforms for ambitious and surprising interventions.”