Curator Chat

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

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Jen Padgett

Associate Curator
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Bentonville, AR, (479) 418-5700, www.crystalbridges.org

What event (gallery show, museum exhibit, etc.) in the next few months are you looking forward to, and why?
I’m excited about Supernatural America: The Paranormal in American Art, organized by the Minneapolis Institute of Art, opening at the Speed Art Museum in October [and running through January 2, 2022]. It’s a fascinating subject and MIA curator Robert Cozzolino always has an ingenious point of view.

What are you reading?
I recently finished Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. “Epic” captures it indeed. I’d recommend to anyone with an interest in American history broadly.

Interesting exhibit, gallery opening or work of art you’ve seen recently.
Things at Crystal Bridges are as dynamic as ever, and I’m enjoying recent projects by my curatorial colleagues. It’s been great fun to see works from our collection anew in the exhibition Crystal Bridges at 10, which marks the museum’s first 10 years.

What are you researching at the moment?
I’m diving into research on the Alfred Stieglitz Collection, a group of 101 works that Crystal Bridges co-owns with Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. We’re planning an installation of works from the collection when it returns to Crystal Bridges in spring 2022.

What is your dream exhibit to curate? Or see someone else curate?
It’s impossible to pick just one. I have an ever-growing list of ideas I’d love to see take shape. Even better though is when I’m surprised by work others are doing—
I love when I see an exhibition about an artist completely unfamiliar to me and come away energized.