2016 aamc & aamc foundation conference & meeting program
TRANSCRIPT
2016 AAMC & AAMC FOUNDATION CONFERENCE & MEETING PROGRAM (IN PROGRESS)
MAY 7 – 10, 2016 HOUSTON, TEXAS
The AAMC & AAMC Foundation hosts an Annual Conference & Meeting, attracting on average 300 curators and guests. A vital part of our mission, the Conference is our preeminent offering, as it gathers art curators from every discipline and type of organization together to discuss issues facing the profession. Attending the Conference provides a unique opportunity to network across borders, fields and organizational type.
Working with The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH); Asia Society Texas Center; The Menil Collection; Project Row Houses; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; University Museum at Texas Southern University; Blaffer Art Museum, University of Houston; DiverseWorks; Rice University Art Gallery; Aurora Picture Show and Rienzi and Bayou Bend Collections and Gardens, both part of MFAH —we will host numerous events over the four-‐day program, which will include site visits, networking opportunities, panels and workshops, open Roundtable discussions, a Diversity Task Force session, and a full membership meeting.
Saturday, May 7: Tours Sunday, May 8: Tours & Awards for Excellence Reception Monday, May 9: Sessions, Keynote, Members’ Reception & Circle Donor Dinner Tuesday, May 10: Sessions
SATURDAY EVENTS: REGISTRATION INFORMATION • Two options for tours, each includes transportation and lunch. • Registration, with fee payment is required to participate in either option. • As the tours run concurrently, you can only choose one option. • Please note there is very limited availability, so please register ONLY if you will
be attending. • Registration fee is non-‐refundable.
SATURDAY, MAY 7 SCHEDULE
TOUR OPTION 1 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM Project Row Houses Visit of Project Row Houses with introduction by RICK LOWE, Founding Director, and EUREKA GILKEY, Executive Director and Round tour with RYAN N. DENNIS Public Art Director. Visitors will have the opportunity to learn about the many aspects of this community-‐based arts organization that has shaped our understanding of what art can do. Rice Gallery An introduction to the gallery, and tour of installation with CHRISTINE MEDINA, Manager, and self guided visit of public art on campus. The only university art museum in the nation dedicated to site-‐specific installation art, Rice Gallery presents temporary, large-‐scale environments that visitors can enter and explore. Artists typically use inexpensive materials to create stunning works of art. Currently on view will be "The Great Cape Rinderhorn” by German artist Thorsten Brinkmann. He describes his installation as a “decaying palace.” Overwhelming at first glance, this “palace” is full of idiosyncratic and eccentric opulence. The walls are painted in angled swatches of pea green, teal, brown, and deep purple interrupting densely patterned pink wallpaper. Lining these walls are portraits of figures in the kind of regal poses traditionally reserved for richly attired knights and monarchs. Here, however, their bodies and faces are adorned and disguised by common objects (trashcans, lampshades, tattered blankets, and ski gloves) and not the precious materials that normally signify royalty. At the center of the gallery sits a plywood crate with a huge animal horn inexplicably perched atop it. A small opening in the side of the crate allows visitors entry to a hidden “cinema,” where a video shows a hapless king struggling to find the right pose, and a tunnel leads to the palace inhabitant’s secret room. Blaffer Art Museum A brief tour and introduction by KATHERINE VENEMAN, Curator of Education, Blaffer Art Museum, University of Houston, of the Museum and the UH Public Art Collection. Blaffer Art Museum if a non-‐collecting contemporary art museum established in 1973. The museum showcases work across all media by international artists, with an emphasis on emerging and
mid-‐career artists. On view will be the Annual School of Art Student Exhibition with art from the School of Art first and second year graduate students and undergraduate seniors. The University of Houston Public Art Collection was established in 1969 and includes over 500 artworks across the UH System by such artists as Frank Stella, Marry Miss, Carlos Cruz-‐Diez, The Art Guys, Kendall Buster and Jacob Hashimoto. University Museum, Texas Southern University ALVIA J. WARDLAW, Director and Curator will lead a tour of the University Museum, Texas Southern University. For over a decade, the museum has presented art from African and African American artists through its permanent collection and special exhibitions. DiverseWorks Join XANDRA EDEN, Executive Director & Chief Curator; Rachel Cook, Associate Curator; and other staff for an introduction to DiverseWorks, with light refreshments, tour of current exhibition and performance facilities. One of Houston’s most innovative arts organizations, DiverseWorks has been commissioning and presenting experimental and multidisciplinary art for over 33 years. Their new location at the MATCH (Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston) provides unique opportunities for artists to create work and experiment with new art forms in multiple gallery and theater spaces. School for the Movement of the Technicolor People is a large-‐scale installation and performance platform by Los Angeles-‐based artist taisha paggett. Developed in collaboration with artists Ashley Hunt and Kim Zumpfe, the project serves as an exhibition, temporary dance school, and performance space for dance company, WXPT (We are the Paper, We are the Trees) and its extended community of participants. TOUR OPTION 2 10:00 AM – 5:45 PM Project Row Houses Visit of Project Row Houses with introduction by RICK LOWE, Founding Director, and EUREKA GILKEY, Executive Director and Round tour with RYAN N. DENNIS Public Art Director. Visitors will have the opportunity to learn about the many aspects of this community-‐based arts organization that has shaped our understanding of what art can do. The Menil house MICHELLE WHITE, curator at The Menil Collection will guide a tour of the Philip Johnston-‐designed residence of John and Dominique de Menil. It is the first International style domestic building in the southwestern United States, built in 1949. The interiors are by American courtier Charles James, and the house holds a selection of work from the Museum’s collection.
Bayou Bend Collection & Gardens, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Bayou Bend is the MFAH house museum for American decorative arts and paintings. Displayed in the former home of Houston civic leader and philanthropist Ima Hogg (1882–1975), the collection is one of the finest showcases of American furnishings, silver, ceramics, and paintings in the world. The house is situated on 14 acres of organically maintained gardens in Houston's historic River Oaks neighborhood. BRADLEY BROOKS, curator, Bayou Bend Collections & Gardens will introduce the group before breaking out into docent-‐led tours. Rienzi, MFAH Join CHRISTINE GERVAIS, Associate Curator, Decorative Arts and Rienzi for an introduction to space and guided visit of Rienzi, which is the MFAH house museum for European decorative arts. Originally the home of arts patrons Carroll Sterling Masterson and Harris Masterson III, Rienzi comprises a remarkable art collection, house, and gardens. For more than 40 years, the Mastersons collected European decorative arts, paintings, furnishings, and porcelain made from the 17th to mid-‐19th centuries.
SUNDAY, MAY 8 – TUESDAY, MAY 10 EVENTS: REGISTRATION INFORMATION • Registration for full Conference is required to attend the events from Sunday –
Tuesday, individual registration for selected events is not available. • Transportation will be provided to and from events, but you must register and
submit the fee in advance. • Welcome registration bags will be given out as you arrive at your hotel, and will
include your registration material and transportation tickets. Please be sure when you register you note which hotel you will be staying at, it is essential.
• If you are not staying at a hotel, your registration material will be available at The Menil Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Asia Society Texas Center.
SUNDAY, MAY 8 SCHEDULE 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM Mentorship Program Alumni Reception hosted by The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation & Inman Gallery Closed event, by invitation A celebration of the Mentorship Program, bringing together program alumni and AAMC Board members, hosted by The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation & Inman Gallery. On view at the Inman Gallery will be Haavard Homstvedt and Katrina Moorhead. KERRY INMAN, owner and director, will welcome the group, along with special guests from the gallery. AAMC’s Mentorship Program, launched in 2012, reinforces our mission to foster the professional development of curators at all levels, and furthers our new strategic plan to aid and promote the curatorial profession by providing the tools for our members to grow in their career and field. Each year, 5 sets of established, senior curators (mentors) and emerging to mid-‐career curators (mentees) are paired and embark on the yearlong program. 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM Contemporary Art Museum Houston Join BILL ARNING, Director, and DEAN DADERKO, Curator, for a tour of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAHM). Founded in 1948, CAMH is the oldest non-‐collecting contemporary arts space in the United States. CAMH presents dynamic exhibitions by innovative and exciting international, national, and regional artists in its Brown Foundation and Zilkha Galleries. Located in the heart of Houston’s Museum District in an iconic parallelogram-‐shaped, steel-‐clad building designed by Gunnar Birkerts and inaugurated in 1972, CAMH’s exhibitions are always free and open to the public, and are complimented by a full calendar of engaging programs for visitors of all ages. Each exhibition is accompanied by a full-‐color catalogue that serves to extend the exhibition's reach and contribute to scholarship. On view are Mark Flood: Greatest Hits, the first survey of Mark Flood’s work dating from 1980s to 2015; and THE INTERVIEW: Red, Red Future, a
solo exhibition by the artist MPA featuring an entirely new body of work commissioned by CAMH, including a dynamic installation that combines sculpture, light, and photography. 3:00 PM – 4:45 PM Tacita Dean’s Event for a Stage at Aurora Picture Show with the artist in attendance Commissioned for the 19th Biennale of Sydney, British artist TACITA DEAN’s latest film Event for a Stage explores processes of stage acting, filmmaking, and portraiture. First performed live in collaboration with actor Stephen Dillane with two 16mm cameras recording, Dean re-‐edited the films into a new film performance, for which this is the Houston debut. The program includes a welcome to the Aurora Picture Show—a non-‐profit media arts center that presents artist-‐made, non-‐commercial film and video, dedicated to expanding the cinematic experience and promoting the understanding and appreciation of moving image art—with SARAH STAUDER, Executive Director and MARY MAGSAMEN, Curator. Followed by a brief introduction to the film by MICHAEL WELLEN, Assistant Curator of Latin American and Latino Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and guest curator of the screening. The film viewing (approx. 50 minutes), will be followed by a small reception. 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM Board of Trustees Meeting at The Menil Collection Closed event, by invitation 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM The Menil Collection Awards for Excellence Celebration and Welcome from The Menil Collection Join us for our first Awards of Excellence Celebration, where we will toast this year’s Award recipients. The AAMC Foundation has honored more than 100 curators for their outstanding work in catalogues, essays, articles and exhibitions through our Awards for Excellence. The Prizes, as they are more informally known, are the only of their kind by which curators directly acknowledge the work of their colleagues. The Awards are highly valued and esteemed by our members, and we are proud to be formally honoring them with an individual reception.
MONDAY, MAY 9 SCHEDULE Museum of Fine Arts Houston The Museum’s collection galleries will be open to conference attendees through 5:00 p.m. in the Caroline Wiess Law Building and through 7:00 p.m. in the Audrey Jones Beck Building. Also on view will be the special exhibition Sculpted in Steel: Art Deco Automobiles and Motorcycles, 1929–1940. Sessions will be in the Brown Auditorium Theater, Cullinan Hall. 7:45 AM – 8:30 AM Welcome Breakfast Reception 8:45 AM Introduction of GARY TINTEROW, Director, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Trustee Emeritus, AAMC Past President by HELEN EVANS, Mary & Michael Jaharis Curator of Byzantine Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; AAMC President 9:00 AM Welcome Address GARY TINTEROW, Director, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Past President, Trustee Emeritus 9:30 AM Introduction of Keynote Presentation, in-‐conversation with DARREN WALKER, President of the Ford Foundation, moderated by HILTON ALS, staff writer & theatre critic for The New Yorker, by HELEN EVANS, Mary & Michael Jaharis Curator of Byzantine Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; AAMC President 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM Keynote Presentation DARREN WALKER, President, Ford Foundation HILTON ALS, staff writer & theatre critic for The New Yorker 11:15 AM -‐ 12:45 PM Panel: Lights in the Dark: Innovative Strategies for Film and Video Exhibitions “Culturally and socially, we are moving too fast and losing too much in our haste…. Analogue, the word, means equivalent. Digital is not the analogue of analogue. At the moment we have both, so why deplete our world of this choice?”
–Tacita Dean
Digital resources increasingly enable curators to incorporate film, video, and new media installations into their exhibitions. However, the opportunity also brings a unique set of spatial and technical challenges. As new technologies and computer advancements offer more cost effective methods for showing certain time-‐based media and content, these same technologies have pushed earlier media—particularly film—into near extinction, making it more difficult to locate the materials and expertise necessary to display a wide range of works. How best to navigate through these challenges? How might working with time-‐based media revolutionize our methods of art historical investigation and exhibition display? This panel brings artist Tacita Dean together with several curators adventurously engaging and integrating new and historical film and video into different exhibition settings (including, but not limited to museum galleries, biennials, site-‐specific installations). Jointly, the panel makes a case for how exhibitions can become best positioned for innovating new technologies and for appreciating and preserving the old. Moderator/Organizer: MICHAEL WELLEN, Assistant Curator of Latin American and Latino Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Panelists: TACITA DEAN, artist and founder, savefilm.org ALMA RUIZ, Senior Fellow in the Center for Management in the Creative Industries, Latin American Specialist, Sotheby’s Institute of Art and Claremont Graduate University DEAN DADERKO, Curator, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston MICHAEL MANSFIELD, Curator, Film & Media Art, American Art Museum, Smithsonian Institution 12:45 PM -‐ 2:45 PM Roundtable Discussions and Lunch The Roundtable discussions are intended to generate conversation among members by dedicating several tables to assigned topics. We anticipate participants joining tables with questions and ideas to share, and seeking guidance and feedback from the table leaders as well as other attendees. We hope that these discussions will open up dialogues between curators at all stages of their careers. Roundtables are filled on a first come basis, for more information on the Roundtable topics: please visit artcurators.org. 2:45 PM – 4:15 PM Workshop: It’s Complicated: The Curator-‐Patron Relationship This workshop is aimed at helping curators prepare for, initiate, and maintain vital connections with individual museum donors while also dealing with the ethical and practical concerns they may encounter.
There are many questions that arise when considering the delicate dance of patron and curator. For instance: How should your relationship evolve as the patron’s or the museum’s needs change? How can you best communicate that an offered donation is not wanted by the museum? Panelists will offer − through information exchange and an extensive question and answer period − wisdom, etiquette suggestions, and guidelines for effective interactions that will both strengthen your personal relationship with key supporters and the relationship between them and your institution. Moderator/Organizer: AL MINER, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Panelists: CODY HARTLEY, Director of Curatorial Affairs, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum RENÉ PAUL BARILLEAUX, Chief Curator/Curator of Contemporary Art, McNay Art Museum; Finance & Audit Committee & Fundraising Initiatives Member PAUL C. HA, Director, MIT List Visual Arts Center MARIA ROBINSON GLOVER, Associate Director of Development Office of Strategic Advancement at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-‐Arc) 4:15 PM – 4:30 PM Mentorship Program Announcement 4:30 PM – 5:00 PM Members’ Meeting 5:00 PM End sessions 5:15 PM -‐ 7:15 PM Members’ Reception hosted by Sotheby’s in the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation Gallery – 214 6:30 PM Circle Donor Dinner Hosted by Hiram Butler and Andrew Spindler-‐Roesle Closed event, by invitation For more information on becoming a Circle donor, please contact AAMC.
TUESDAY, MAY 10 SCHEDULE Asia Society Texas Center Galleries will be open during our Conference. 7:30 AM – 8:15 AM Breakfast Reception 8:20 AM Introduction of BONNA KOL, Executive Director, Asia Society Texas Center by HELEN EVANS, Mary & Michael Jaharis Curator of Byzantine Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; AAMC President 8:30 AM Welcome Address BONNA KOL, Executive Director, Asia Society Texas Center 8:45 AM – 10:15 AM Diversity Task Force Session: Diversifying the Curatorial Profession: How the Internship/Fellowship Track Can Be Our Essential Path Toward Change Organized by AAMC’s Executive Director and Diversity Task Force, this panel has three goals: 1) cite analysis on diversity gaps caused by barriers to entry in the curatorial field; 2) present experts on successful internship and fellowship opportunities currently available to historically underrepresented minorities; and 3) propose key points on why and how to develop one at your own institution. Panelists will speak from experience on both sides of these internship/fellowship opportunities, as both mentors and mentees, program developers and participants. Their presentations will address consequences of lack of diversity, and highlight resources to research toward making change. This panel makes the case that while targeted internships and fellowships are but one step among many to address hiring disparities, they can be a productive, and essential, first step to diversify the field. Moderator: JEN MERGEL, Robert L. Beal, Enid L. Beal and Bruce A. Beal Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; AAMC Board of Trustees, Professional Development Committee Co-‐Chair, Diversity Task Force Co-‐Leader Panelists: RENÉE FRANKLIN, Director of Audience Development, Saint Louis Art Museum
AUNTANESHIA STAVELOZ, Supervisory Program Manager, Office of Community & Constituent Services, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African American History & Culture and also Vice President at Association of African American Museums ANNE COLLINS SMITH, Curator of Collections, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art CHON A. NORIEGA, Professor, University of California, Los Angeles 10:15 AM – 10:45 AM Curatorial Slam Presentations (TBA) 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM Panel: Exhibiting Controversy: Promoting Debate The visual arts are particularly effective for thinking about, shaping, and sharing perspectives on the pressing issues of our day. This panel invites artists and curators who have intentionally organized exhibitions on subjects that take on the big questions and issues of today to present on their experiences and strategies, from exhibition concept and design, to public engagement, to the expected and unexpected responses of peers, stakeholders, and the wider public. When handled adeptly, exhibitions can create avenues for exploring socially relevant and even “hot-‐button” topics—whether they are divisive, emotionally charged, socially taboo, or merely uncomfortable—in ways that break through the circularity of entrenched opinions and make space for reflection, empathy, and critical inquiry. Moderator/Organizer: KATHLEEN BICKFORD BERZOCK, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University Panelists: HEATHER IGLOLIORTE, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, Concordia University ROCK HUSHKA, Chief Curator & Curator of Contemporary & Northwest Art, Tacoma Art Museum GRAHAM C. BOETTCHER, Deputy Director and The William Cary Hulsey Curator of American Art, Birmingham Museum of Art; AAMC Vice President, Finance, Board of Trustees, Finance & Audit Committee Chair & EC Representative KELLI MORGAN, Doctoral Candidate, W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-‐American Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst SILVIA FORNI, Curator of Anthropology, Royal Ontario Museum 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM Bonhams Sponsored Lunch Reception & Committee Meetings 2:00 PM – 2:30 PM Curatorial Slam Presentations (TBA)
2:45 PM – 4:15 PM Panel: When All Art Is Contemporary: The Institutional Push for Relevance Given museums’ increasing focus on “what’s now,” how can curators best respond? Should we view as inevitable the institutional directives to show more contemporary art, or to emphasize the relevance of historical works to the present? This panel will invite curators working at a range of museums to tackle these questions both philosophically and practically. Panelists may share case studies of how they’ve displayed, interpreted, or recontextualized earlier art from their museum’s permanent collection. They may offer perspectives on the institutional forces that guide decision-‐making about the collections and exhibitions “menu”, and how curators can ensure that they continue to play a decisive role in those strategic discussions. Key takeaways will be how contemporary and non-‐contemporary curators alike can think more creatively to avoid blunt characterizations of periodization and to preserve the dynamic and essential historicity of objects. Moderator/Organizer: ANNE LEONARD, Curator and Associate Director of Academic Initiatives, Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago Panelists: PAUL R. DAVIS, Curator of Collections, The Menil Collection TULIZA FLEMING, Curator and Art Historian, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture OLIVER TOSTMANN, Susan Morse Hilles Curator of European Art, Wadsworth Atheneum 4:30 PM Closing Remarks JUDITH PINEIRO, Executive Director, AAMC & AAMC Foundation 4:45 PM Conference Ends The information in this document is subject to change without notice and should not be construed as a
commitment by AAMC and/or AAMC Foundation. AAMC and/or AAMC Foundation assume no responsibility for any errors that may appear in this document. In no event shall AAMC and/or AAMC
Foundation be liable for incidental or consequential damages arising from use of this document or other conference-‐related material. This document and parts thereof must not be reproduced or copied
without AAMC and/or AAMC Foundation providing written permission, and contents thereof must not be imparted to a third party nor be used for any unauthorized purpose.