A Selection of Art Projects
LIGHT OF REASON, CHRIS BURDEN
PROJECT MANAGEMENT: This ambitious public sculpture for The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University was created by artist Chris Burden. The year long installation plan required exceptional negotiation skills, fiscal creativity, and absolute attention to detail. Working on behalf of the Museum, I engaged stakeholders across campus, along with outside contractors and landscape architects. This installation required close and constant work with the artist and his studio. After much research, I identified the unique light bulbs that were incorporated into the final design, in order to preserve the quality of light and integrity of the sculpture, respecting the artist's original intent, while still meeting campus sustainability goals. This $2M project came in on budget and on time.
THE ROSE ART MUSEUM, BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY
MUSEUM MANAGEMENT: In 2010, I was invited to campus to survey the condition of the world renowned collection of post-war art, during a time when the majority of staff had been laid off. I was offered the role of collection manager and accepted the challenge, knowing the institution was still in transition. My immediate mission was to secure the facility and to oversee a museum renovation. Concurrently, I applied for and received a Museum Assessment Grant, inviting outside museum leaders to evaluate the status of the museum's operations. Later, I established the first digital database to the collection, establishing critical intellectual control. I ascended to Deputy Director, then Interim Director, building the staff from 3 people to 10, and improved all areas of operations, including deeper integration with the Academy. In 2016, the Rose team received the ultimate nod from the art world by being awarded the commission to represent the United States at the 2017 Venice Biennale. My eight years at the Rose provided an incomparable learning experience.
TRAVEL ALBUMS OF ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER
PRESERVATION MANAGEMENT: After establishing the first sole archives department for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, I proposed a project that received $150,000 in funding from the Leon Levy Foundation to conserve and make accessible the collection of travel albums created by philanthropist and museum founder Isabella Stewart Gardner. These albums, the most requested by scholars, illustrate Gardner's artistic inspirations and acted as a sort of blueprint for the later creation that was her museum. Among some of the most referred to but most fragile documents in the archives, this website, co-created with the digital department at the Massachusetts College of Art, was the first of all of Gardner's collections to be digitized and made available to online visitors.
ROSEBUD, A SATELLITE GALLERY
MUSEUM OUTREACH: In 2015, I introduced a pop-up, temporary gallery called Rosebud to the city of Waltham, MA. Rosebud acted as a satellite gallery of The Rose Art Museum, and aimed to activate public engagement with contemporary art through exhibitions housed in an underutilized property in the city. The gallery was purposely sited next to Waltham's City Hall, public Common and the Public Library. Programs hosted at Rosebud included not only Brandeis classes and artist visits, but drawing sessions held by the Waltham Mills Artists Association and a filmmaking workshop by the AgX Film Collective. The gallery presented a range of video exhibitions, including the U.S. premiere of Theaster Gates' "Gone are the Days of Shelter and Martyr".