Curator Chat

We Ask Leading Museum Curators About What’s Going On In Their World

What event (gallery show, museum exhibit, etc.) in the next few months are you looking forward to, and why?
In American Waters at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, and then at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, for its thematic approach, diverse mix of artists and consideration of water’s role in defining America’s borders and American culture.

What are you reading?
The Homer and Remington exhibition catalog that highlights the shared experiences of two artists rarely paired, Winslow Homer and Frederic Remington. The corresponding exhibition tour includes the Denver Art Museum, Portland Museum of Art and Amon Carter Museum of American Art. It is a must-see and a must read. In fiction: Henry James’ Daisy Miller, originally published in 1878.

Interesting exhibit, gallery opening or work of art you’ve seen recently.
So much of what I have seen recently has been online that I have a renewed interest in translating the in-person experience to the virtual experience. Alexander von Humboldt and the United States: Art, Nature, and Culture at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Crocker’s collection of California photographs from the later 1800s by Carleton Emmons Watkins have challenged me to think differently about the intersection of art and the environment.

What are you researching at the moment?
Louis Comfort Tiffany’s business enterprises and their name changes. So far, I am up to 12. Artistic social networks of the Gilded Age are always on my mind. The circle of artists associated with the Century Magazine in the late 1880s is one of my specialties. I am also looking closely at the Crocker’s collection of tintypes and ambrotypes.

What is your dream exhibit to curate? Or see someone else curate?
A solo exhibition of Marion Post Wolcott’s photography including the works rejected by Roy Stryker during Wolcott’s FSA/Great Depression years. I will live the dream at the Crocker in roughly 2023 when I will curate a show that highlights Wolcott’s photographs in our permanent collection. —