Curatorial

Exhibitions

I have worked on more than one hundred and sixty exhibitions. Each presents its own source of inspiration, its own set of challenges, its own lessons, its own rewards.

I am forever inspired by working with museum professionals who come together to shape and realize a vision, to transform an idea into a space radiant with meaningful objects; to fashion beautifully crafted publications; to produce moving visitor experiences.

Case Study

A Kiowa’s Odyssey: A Sketchbook from Fort Marion

This project began when I came across a series of drawings in print storage. Stylistically, they matched the ledger drawings made by Plains Indians artists in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. This assessment was supported by internal evidence that connected them to the Carlisle Indian School—the nation’s first off-reservation boarding school—which was located less than a mile away from the museum.

After several years of research, much of it at the Beineke Library, Yale University, I concluded that the drawings were the missing sheets from a pair of highly important sketchbooks that were made at Fort Martin (St. Augustine, Florida) between 1875 and 1878. The drawings represent the US Army’s capture of 72 Plains Indians in Oklahoma Territory and their forced relocation and incarceration at Fort Marion. In addition to their capture and odyssey from the Plains to shores of the Atlantic, the drawings illustrate policies implemented by their jailor, Lt. Richard Henry Pratt, to abandon their languages, beliefs, manner of dress, and way of life and adopt those of the dominant capitalistic White society. This three-year “experiment” in forced acculturation paved the way for Lt. Pratt to create the Carlisle Indian School in 1879, a year after the warriors were released.

The touring exhibition and its catalogue focused on reconstructing the original nature of the two sketchbooks, the scenes represented in the drawings, and the historical context that led to their creation. This project drew together a range of research methodologies including those used in art history, manuscript studies, codicology, anthropology, and history.

The exhibition touring itinerary retraced the warrior’s capture, relocation, and forced acculturation, with venues at the Plains-Panhandle Museum (Canyon, Texas), the Cummer Museum of Art (Jacksonville, Florida), and The Trout Gallery (Carlisle, Pennsylvania). CAA selected the exhibition catalogue for its Alfred A. Barr, Jr. Award. [click image for more information about the catalogue.]

Building Collections at an Academic Museum

Acquiring works for a museum’s collection is among the most exciting and rewarding aspects of curatorial work. It is a central building block of museum practice—developing the collection.

Acquisitions frequently come to museums in the form of gifts to the collection from donors, who often have a close connection to the museum. Such gifts are usually the fruit of a lengthly relationship between the donor and the institution and represent a culmination of mutually shared interests.

In contrast, purchases—from artists, galleries, or at auction—are usually made with limited funds, and are thus highly focused and target the museum’s highest collecting priorities. Consequently, the opportunity to purchase works is prized and usually reserved for the curators.

For some time, I took great pride in selecting works for purchase, but wondered why others on campus did not share in the excitement. I needed to find ways to incorporate students and faculty in the selection process; to fuel their interest in the collections and give them a hand in shaping it. Although the concept of letting go of this treasured process strikes fear in the minds of many curators, the faculty and students made inspired selections. I found their acquisitions invigorated the collection and the collecting process. Moreover, this approach built new audiences who had a vested interest in the collection. Moreover, funds for this initiative were drawn from museum membership income, so the process linked past and present students. The process fundamentally reshaped the collection in refreshing and invigorating ways. Two approaches to purchasing art were particularly effective.

Student-Driven Acquisitions: Print Fairs

Each year I would oversee a small group of seniors on a two-day trip to New York City to attend the annual print and photograph fairs. I would provide them with a budget to identify works that they felt represented the central issues of their past four years in college. After two days at the fair, visiting nearly a hundred booths and reviewing thousands of prints or photographs, the student returned to campus with their cell-phones loaded with images of possible acquisitions.

Over the course of the next two weeks, the students met repeatedly to narrow their selections from hundreds to a few, a couple, sometimes just one. The seriousness with with the students debated their choices was inspiring. Sometimes they landed on their pick at the fair and it was a simple process to finalize the process.

Other years, the process was lengthy and challenging, as several great options were on the table but room for only a few. These sessions, which I would moderate and guide, convinced me of the process and the value of making this opportunity available to the students. Ultimately, the students presented their final recommendations to the museum’s advisory committee and made compelling arguments for acquiring the works they had selected.

The acquisitions acquired through this initiative fundamentally transformed the collections, the students’ relationship to them, and the role of these objects as an academic resource on campus.

Classroom-Driven Acquisitions:

On-line Auctions

When the COVID pandemic made attending print fairs impossible, I created an alternative, and perhaps even more successful initiative: working with an entire class to purchase works through on-line auction sales.

For this initiative, I met with interested faculty to review their course syllabi and identify which courses might be well suited for this process. I paired those classes with upcoming auction sales and provided them with access to the relevant on-line sales catalogues. In their respective classes, the faculty members developed research assignments based on the lots listed in the sales catalogue. Students were required to formulate a compelling argument for acquiring a particular work for the collection.

After the presentations, the faculty member and the students drew up the final list of works on which to place bids. The auctions were held live, on-line, and students were able to follow the sale, lot-by-lot, to see if their selections were acquired for the collection.

In a course on Renaissance art offered in 2022, the class was able to acquire a several chiaroscuro woodcuts after Andrea Mantegna’s The Triumphs of Julius Caesar (above). This material is now built into subsequent versions of the course. Over the course of repeated projects such as this, the students in future iterations of this class will have a solid body of works to add to and draw upon for study and research.