Derek Gillman A smart choice for the Barnes

Derek Gillman "has a wonderful way with people," a good friend says. He's also a veteran curator with a transcontinental resume, and just so happens to have had a direct hand in the construction of four buildings that house great art.

Gillman, 53, will need to draw on this wealth of experience and plumb every consensus-building skill when he leaves his post as director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts to head the Barnes Foundation.

As point person for the Barnes' exciting and controversial move of its storied art collection from Lower Merion Township to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Gillman faces a huge undertaking. For one thing, critics aplenty view the move as akin to Lord Elgin's raiding of the Parthenon.

From a logistics standpoint, the creation of any $150 million museum would be a complex challenge. But the Barnes collection poses special issues, since it must be displayed under the collector's will in a setting that recreates the Merion galleries. Collector Albert C. Barnes viewed the gallery as integral to understanding the works he amassed with wealth from his patent-medicine sales.

Good to hear Gillman say he's committed to working within the directives on gallery design issued by Montgomery County Orphans' Court, which oversees the Barnes will. That's the wise, legal path, of course.

It's also right to honor Albert Barnes in this aspect of stewardship, while at the same time bringing the collection now limited to restricted viewing to a location where millions more can marvel at it.

The Barnes trustees were fortunate to have someone of Gillman's accomplishments who is so familiar to Philadelphia arts circles. He bested scores of other candidates during a nationwide search. But Gillman's hiring this week wasn't about saving on moving expenses. The transformation of the Academy of the Fine Arts stands as the best evidence that Gillman is right for this job: It's a wholly reinvigorated institution, with a handsome, new classroom, studio and gallery facility.

Good luck to Gillman in transforming another cultural gem.