Exterior view of the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, Wisconsin.
What event (gallery show, museum exhibit, etc.) in the next few months are you looking forward to, and why?
After years of preparation, I am very excited to celebrate our reimagined collection galleries with the public this fall. The Chazen’s reinstallation centers a variety of artworks from our collection as focus objects, each anchoring a gallery space. A constellation of other works from the collection are organized by themes drawn from the focus objects. Focus objects include William Keith’s Devil’s Slide, Weber Canyon, Utah (1874), Louis H. Sullivan’s Elevator Enclosure Grille from the Chicago Stock Exchange (1893-1894) John Steuart Curry’s Wisconsin Farm Scene (1941), Louise Nevelson’s Cathedral Garden #4 (1963) and Sam Gilliam’s Pink Flutter (1969). This new mode of display will offer visitors multiple paths to engage with art from different periods and cultures.
What are you reading?
I recently finished Paul Schneider’s The Adirondacks: A History of America’s First Wilderness. It was fascinating to learn about the creation of the Adirondack Park, one of the largest publicly protected areas in the United States and a landscape that’s been inspiring artists for centuries. Prior to working at the Chazen Museum of Art, I was on the curatorial and exhibitions staff at the Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College and spent a lot of time in Old Forge and other areas of the park hiking, boating and enjoying the outdoors.
What is an interesting exhibit, gallery opening or work of art you’ve seen recently?
It was wonderful to see so much of Gertrude Abercrombie’s artwork together in Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery at nearby Milwaukee Art Museum. The exhibition was co-organized by Carnegie Museum of Art and Colby College Museum of Art and was paired with a focused show, Gertrude & Friends: The Wisconsin Magic Realists, which featured the work of Wisconsin artists like Aaron Bohrod, Marshall Glasier, Karl Priebe, and John Wilde. Another female surrealist artist, Sylvia Fein, whose work I particularly admire, was also part of this group of friends.
What are you researching at the moment?
Early next year, I will be giving a talk on UW–Madison’s role in the beginnings of the American studio glass movement and how we are highlighting that history in one of our new gallery spaces—the first in the institution’s history dedicated to contemporary glass. This has prompted me to delve even further into the extensive history of glass in America generally, and in Madison more specifically, from its beginnings under ceramics professor Harvey K. Littleton to its present under Associate Professor of Glass Helen Lee.
What is your dream exhibit to curate? Or see someone else curate?
When I took this position, one of the things that drew me to the Chazen was to oversee a comprehensive reinstallation of the collection. I was attracted to the opportunity to have a lasting impact on the field and bring a timely and innovative approach to a university museum, not just through one temporary exhibition but a suite of more permanent galleries. This was a new way of working and involved many other voices, curatorial and otherwise. So, I had the chance to curate my dream exhibition! Now that we’ve finished the project, I’m just starting to consider new ideas and intellectual adventures. —
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