We’re taking our Five Questions series around the office and finding out more about SFMOMA staff members and what’s changed for them now that we’re under construction. Today we’re talking to Jared Ledesma, curatorial assistant, Painting and Sculpture, in our new Kearny Street offices, where a lot of our staff have temporarily relocated until our building reopens.

Please describe your job in three sentences or less:

As a curatorial assistant in the Department of Painting and Sculpture, I assist in the research and development of the permanent collection and assist in the research for traveling exhibitions. I also aid in the logistical side of organizing exhibitions, such as drafting wall texts or materials for a catalogue, and correspond with various parties. When needed, I help the curators and assistant curators in the department in various capacities.

What are you thinking about now that you weren’t thinking about before the museum closed?

I’ve always thought of the Botta building as a piece of artwork itself, a monument of modern architecture. It is really jarring to walk by the museum now, while it is being demolished. To see it literally crumble before me is kind of sad. I wasn’t prepared for that at all.

If you could spend an afternoon with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, which won’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows me. I wrote my master’s thesis about him, and I would love to hear what he says personally about his artwork and how he wants it viewed through different lenses. He was also into critical theory, and it would be fun to talk about that with him.

If you could steal any artwork in the world to have in your home, what would it be?

Henri Matisse’s The Piano Lesson (1916).

Have you ever run out of money?

Yes. They warned us about it in grad school while I was studying art history: “It’s going to happen.”

What should I ask you?

Maybe about my obsession with Orange Slices, the candy? I get them for Christmas and birthdays and have loved them since I was a child.