Libby Lumpkin has lived and learned in enough places in Texas that, she joked, “I can’t remember where I graduated from.” (She did, eventually: University of Houston.) Lumpkin, a writer, curator, and former director of the Las Vegas Art Museum, has spent a few good times in Los Angeles too. She recalled attending the opening of Eli Broad’s new wing at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for the Zócalo crowd at the Autry National Center. “I was happy to be invited primarily so I could see how to do a proper building opening. I didn’t want to do anything outrageous,” she said. “[But] that was the wildest party I’ve ever seen. It was more Vegas than anything.” Learn more about Lumpkin below.
Q. What do you wake up to?
A. A hungry cat.
Q. What music have you listened to today?
A. The oldies channel on the radio.
Q. What’s your favorite word?
A. Lollapalooza.
Q. What do you find beautiful?
A. I find manmade things beautiful. I’m a person who likes to look at art rather than mountains.
Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A. Housewife.
Q. What is your favorite cocktail?
A. Gin martini.
Q. What is your greatest extravagance?
A. I will valet park when I don’t absolutely have to.
Q. What profession would you like to practice in your next life?
A. Law.
Q. What would be your death row meal?
A. T-Bone steak.
Q. What is your favorite holiday and why?
A. President’s Day. No presents involved.
Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?
A. Traveling to the beach at Galveston.
Q. What is your most prized material possession?
A. I actually have a lot of possessions, a lot of art. The most prized one changes frequently, so this week it would be… an Ed Ruscha drawing.
Q. What promise do you make to yourself that you break the most often?
A. No more hamburgers.
Q. Who is the one person living or dead that you’d most love to have a beer with?
A. Aretha Franklin.
To read more about Lumpkin’s panel on Los Angeles vs. Las Vegas, click here.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.