Stephanie Wiles is the new director of the Allen Art Museum. She worked for 16 years at the Morgan Library in New York City as the curator of drawings and prints, and comes to Oberlin from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where she was the curator of the Davidson Art Center.How did you decide to come to the Allen Art Museum?

I really enjoyed being at Wesleyan, but I was ready for a change. My background is works on paper and I was excited to start working with different media like painting and sculpture. I was interested to start looking at different kinds of art in ways I never had before. What I love about the Allen Art Museum is that within this beautiful building there is a strong commitment to the old and new both within the collection and within the architecture. This creates wonderful opportunities to expand and diversify the collection and to speak to a wide group of people. What made you want to work in art museums?

It was such a mix of things — visiting museums, taking art history in college. People work in museums because they either want to make art or they love art but can’t quite cut it as an artist. I fall into the latter category and I’m grateful for the chance to be around art constantly. The idea of being in a classroom with a slide projector is not as appealing to me as being in the physical space with the art itself. Plus, I love organizing exhibitions.Do you have any ideas for upcoming exhibitions?

Right now I’m putting together an exhibition of drawings by Jim Dine. He’s working closely with us and will be coming to Oberlin to talk to students and will be here for the opening reception. Jim and I have worked together before, this show is very much about collaboration. It will be an overview of his drawings from the early 1960s to works created in 2004 and it will say a lot about what he sees as important in his drawings and about what an outsider - me - sees. What I love most working in a college setting is the latitude to experiment and approach projects in innovative ways.Do you have a favorite artist?

It’s so hard to pick a favorite. If pressed, I’d have to say Egon Schiele, because I spent a lot of time studying his art in Vienna when I was an undergraduate and as a graduate student and my great love is drawing. Schiele also has the power to say something new to me at any time through his work and always manages to shock me, and that’s good.How about a favorite piece of art in the museum’s collection?

That would be “Dovedale by Moonlight,” an 18th century landscape painting by Joseph Wright of Derby. It is so ahead of its time. It captures the moment, atmospheric changes and geological interests that only became characteristic of paintings later in the 19th century.