Fostering a Dialogue with Brooklyn Museum's David Berliner

Before Brooklyn became part of New York City, its museum aimed to rival the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with a huge building and one of the country’s most comprehensive collections. But the Brooklyn Museum has had a more democratic, if not slightly revolutionary, outlook right from the start. Since getting together, the team formed by David Berliner and Anne Pasternak—director since 2015—has skillfully managed this activist-minded museum, holding hard-hitting shows like “The Legacy of Lynching” and “We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85” and selling a Francis Bacon from the permanent collection to fund new acquisitions. You’re a qualified lawyer. How did you get involved in the art world? I developed a passion for art as a member of the Madison Square Park Conservancy over 20 years ago. It was a rough neighborhood at the time, but we started producing…