Walker Art Center’s Philip Bither knighted by France and named a chevalier

As we turn our attention to Paris next week for the Summer Olympics, we can look inward to a French connection — and a prestigious one at that. Minneapolis has bragging rights to a French chevalier, i.e., knight.

Philip Bither, performing arts curator at the Walker Art Center, accepted the Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, a lifetime achievement honor that promotes arts and literature, last month from the French Ministry of Culture with a certain amount of humility.

“It’s a little embarrassing,” said the 65-year-old suburban Chicago native, who has been at the Walker since April 1997. “But it’s nice. I really value how serious and central the arts are for the French government, the French people, and how many American artists have benefited from that attention.”

Addressing Bither at the ceremony in June at the Walker, Axelle Moleur, on behalf of the French Cultural Ministry, spoke of the curator’s “invaluable contribution in promoting French culture and artists” and his lifelong dedication to global artistic exchanges and international programming that has enhanced cultural ties between France and the United States.

Coincidentally, the Walker’s upcoming performing arts season includes two works aligned with French artist Sophie Calle’s solo exhibition “Overshare.” One is called “TRACES (after Sophie Calle),” a site-specific show that takes place Oct. 28 across multiple locations in Minneapolis. Then during the Walker’s “Out There” series beginning in January, an adaptation of Calle’s “Exquisite Pain” will be featured by British troupe Forced Entertainment.

Bither spoke about his recent honor and his long-standing career at the Walker in his office that’s lined with posters of some of his favorite commissions at the art center over the years. On one wall is the poster for Merce Cunningham’s extraordinary “Ocean,” set in a quarry in St. Cloud. Another has the Japanese performing artists Eiko Otake and Takashi Koma, whose work has been signature program at the Walker. In the 2024-25 season, Otake will perform with a new collaborator — Chinese performer Wen Hui.

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: What does the honor Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres actually mean?

A: The French word for knight is chevalier, so I am knighted. It is a lifelong designation and people carry it with them. You are not only given a medal but also given a little pin that you can wear around discreetly when you’re in French settings. When I got the award by mail, I found out these letters of support had been coming to the French since 2017, without my even knowing it.

Q: Did you officially become a Chevalier at the Walker reception in June?

A: I believe I was in November, when I received the plaque they sent to me from the Ministry of Culture in France. It came out of the blue completely. I almost thought it was junk mail. But when I opened it, I realized the letter was very serious.

Q: Where did your interest in Francophone artists come from?

A: I think some of it might be the festival culture. They have some of the great festivals in the world. That’s including the Avignon festival in the south of France every summer, and the Marseille festival, but in particular the Festival d’Automne, the Fall Festival, which is really more of a full September to December series of hundreds of programs. Also, the Walker has long been interested in current trends — particularly contemporary dance in Africa. There’s a lot of artists from French-speaking countries that have been doing just really fascinating, vital, really electric, important work that I felt weren’t really known in the States.

Q: Is there an example of an artist or a group you discovered, and they just blew your mind?

A: There were a lot, actually. This coming season, we will have 19 projects. I would say four or five are unique discoveries, where there’s no booking agent. There’s not even a manager who’s saying, “Hey, I’m gonna send you the packet or here’s the link to the video.” It’s either discovered online, or just more likely discovered at festivals where I say, “Wow, who are you? Can we have a coffee? Have you ever thought about traveling to the U.S.?”

Q: If there’s something you could do over during your time at the Walker, what would it be?

A: There’s always projects that don’t go as well as we might have imagined. And that comes with the territory of commissioning. In particular, our program is generally broken up. Two thirds of our work, I’ve had the chance to see mostly live and invite here. A third are investments in ideas of artists that we trust, and really have great hopes for. Sometimes those ideas result in wonderful things and sometimes they don’t quite fulfill the hopes of what they might have met.

Q: Are people receptive to that?

A: The audiences have been amazing here in the Twin Cities in that people know it’s sort of like going into a gallery and seeing a single installation. You might love it, you may hate it, but there’s value in experiencing it and then talking it over with friends. That’s why we worked so hard to make the bar workable because we really want people to hang out and hear from the artists, talk with each other, debate what they just saw and live with it beyond just the 90 minutes or the 60 minutes in the theater.

Q: You have had your scare with cancer. Are you open to talking about it?

A: Yes, it was just in December I had my last CT scan and I’m in full clear remission, so I don’t even have to go back for any more checkups. That was five years of formal remission.

The cancer did make me appreciate things in different ways, like living every day. The sense of mortality becomes very, very present. We all only have so many days in this life, but I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing and really, in many ways anywhere else, than this position here.