作者:Jonah Grinkewitz
的 巴里艺术博物馆 at bet8体育娱乐入口 has appointed Sara 伍德伯里 as its first permanent curator.
伍德伯里, 谁从2020年开始担任巴里博物馆的客座策展人, 有超过十年的经验, 包括新墨西哥州的罗斯威尔博物馆, 佛蒙特州的谢尔本博物馆和达拉斯艺术博物馆, 等.
She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in art history from Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, 她在威廉斯敦的威廉姆斯学院获得了硕士学位, 麻萨诸塞州. 她目前正在攻读博士学位.D. 在弗吉尼亚州威廉斯堡的威廉玛丽学院攻读美国研究.
ODU 网站登录 sat down with 伍德伯里 to learn more about her background and what she will bring to this new position.
ODU网站登录: 你有不同的背景，在不同的博物馆和策展职位工作过. How do you think that experience will inform your role as curator for the 巴里艺术博物馆?
莎拉伍德伯里: Probably the most direct way it will inform my experience here is that the collection itself is eclectic. 就媒体而言，你有玩偶、玻璃、绘画和雕塑. 这是跨越两个世纪的许多不同的材料. 虽然我没有直接接触过很多, the experience of constantly adapting to new collections in different places has equipped me for this position. 我对学习新材料、新题材和新艺术家感到很舒服. 我拥有的最重要的技能并不是我在某一个领域的专业知识, 这是我的多才多艺和学习新事物的意愿.
ODU网站登录: 你个人的策展理念和方法是什么?
SW: 自从我2010年左右进入这个领域以来，有两件事一直让我感兴趣. 一个是不同艺术家和艺术品之间的联系, 无论是共享地理, 关系或媒介. 另一种是在博物馆藏品中寻找不太为人所知的宝石. 每个人都知道某个博物馆里最伟大的作品, but so many collections have works that rarely get to see the light of day because they’re a fragile work on paper or they’re not by a famous artist. 我想说，这些兴趣仍然激励着我, 但在过去三年左右的时间里，改变的是我对合作的重视. 的 ongoing reckoning within academia has made it very clear to me that I can’t know everything. 我不知道所有的故事，也不知道所有的观点, but that’s not a weakness — it’s an opportunity to reach out to other people who can tell those stories in better ways than I can.
ODU网站登录: 看巴里艺术博物馆的藏品, what really excites you and how do you view your responsibility to 分享 those stories with the community?
SW: 最让我兴奋的是不同材料之间的对话. 这些画和玻璃实际上彼此交谈得很好. 巴里夫妇收集这些作品时，脑子里就有这样的对话. But the dolls are among the most extensive holdings in the museum and they kind of live off in their own gallery. One thing that really interests me is getting those objects in conversation with other pieces in the collection whether it’s through highlighting the artistic processes made to create them or delving into some social history issues like economics and commerce.
在确保代表权方面, I’m really grateful for the committees that we assemble for each of the shows because that brings in faculty members and community members from different fields who raise questions that I might not think of. And that brings in perspectives that enrich the narratives and provide resources to me in terms of expertise or serving as sounding boards.
我拥有的最重要的技能并不是我在某一个领域的专业知识, 这是我的多才多艺和学习新事物的意愿.
ODU网站登录: 在此之前，你在巴里博物馆做了四年的客座策展人. 到目前为止，你最喜欢的电视剧是什么?
SW: It’s such a hard question because my favorite show tends to be what I’m working on at that moment. 这并不是我所独有的, 但一旦有展览, 你已经在考虑下一个项目了. 每一个都有我喜欢的不同方面. “Motion/Emotion” was fun because I had the opportunity to talk more in depth with the STEM faculty that I may not have worked with otherwise. “朗达圣熊”是一次强大的经历. 她是拉科塔州的娃娃制造者，制作精美的作品. 对我来说, 最重要的部分是确保她的声音是主要策展人的声音, 所以我把自己看作是一个促进者，而不是策展人.
I’ve enjoyed the doll shows because I didn’t grow up a doll person – I was more of a stuffed animal kid – but working on those shows has gotten me to think about them through larger social history lenses like business and commerce, 尤其是女性企业家. It encourages me to think about how students can use this collection and what will bring them in. 也许他们对娃娃构造的细节不感兴趣, but they’re working on a paper in gender studies or writing an economics paper in art history and those objects can speak to that.
ODU网站登录: 这很好地引出了我的下一个问题, which is how do you plan to engage students and the community through the museum’s collection?
SW: One thing that I would love to do as I get settled into the role is work more directly with faculty and learn what they’re teaching in their classes so we can serve them and their students. What kind of assignments or research projects are they doing and how can our collection support those? 另一种方法是从策展的角度与我们出色的画廊导游合作. 我刚开始实习的时候, having the opportunity to work on my own shows was a phenomenal experience and it really helped with my career, 所以我想把你的爱传递下去. 就社区而言, 当然，咨询委员会很重要, 同时也参与到社区中来, 走访不同的组织和供应商，看看他们对什么感兴趣.
ODU网站登录: 你将成为巴里艺术博物馆的第一位永久馆长. How does that change things for you and what opportunities do you see for leading curation?
SW: 巴里是一个年轻的机构. 我工作过的大多数博物馆至少有70年的历史. 这意味着他们有自己的制度历史和传统, baggage – whatever you want to call it – and whether you’re subverting it or embracing it, 你仍然要承认这一遗产. Knowing that the Barry has only been open for five years and it’s on the cusp of an expansion, 博物馆正处于一种我从未遇到过的发展状态. 但这也是一个激动人心的时刻，因为博物馆领域本身一直在变化. I know a common critique is that museums are stuffy institutions that are hesitant to change – and yes, 我在某种程度上同意——但它们可以而且确实会随着时间的推移而改变. That means that curatorial roles have evolved and it’s exciting to step into this at a time when you can rethink what a curator does. Especially since I’ve spent the past three years writing a dissertation that looks at the history of museum operations; I’ve had plenty of time to think about it in the abstract. 这个机构是开始这个过程的好地方.
ODU网站登录: 是什么让你对艺术如此着迷?
SW: 在自私的层面上，艺术让我兴奋，因为我是自己创作的. 在我学习艺术史之前，我是画画长大的. 除此之外，艺术吸引我的是它与整个社会的联系. 作为一名艺术史学家, 我喜欢看到不同地理区域之间发展起来的联系, 不同的个体, 更广泛的社会焦虑，以及艺术如何表达或不表达这些焦虑. 艺术对我们的心理健康至关重要, our sense of self and finding our way in the world whether you’re trying to make a big political statement or you’re just sketching what you see on your tabletop.
ODU网站登录: 对你的新角色和巴里艺术博物馆的未来有什么想法吗?
SW: 我很高兴来到这里，我想看到这个博物馆成为学生们的资源, 所以我愿意为他们服务. 他们是否在做一个项目, they need a study space or they want to get into the museum field and use the Barry as a place to reimagine what curation work is like, 我们是为他们而来的.