Reinstalling Nineteenth-Century American Art in US Museums, part 2: Innovation/Interpretation
Please join us on Tuesday, February 27 at 7PM ET for the Virtual Salon “Reinstalling Nineteenth-Century American Art in US Museums, part 2: Innovation/Interpretation.” This event is organized by Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide and is part of a series of online events cosponsored by the Association of the Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art (AHNCA) and the Dahesh Museum of Art.
Join us for a discussion among four curators who are in the process of reinstalling the American galleries at their museums. Building on part 1 of this Virtual Salon series, Art/History, held in November 2023, part 2: Innovation/Interpretation will move from theory to practice. Panelists will discuss such issues as (1) balancing new voices with the curatorial voice; (2) strategies for providing multiple interpretive options in the galleries; (3) prototyping new types of installations; and (4) gathering feedback from visitors, community groups, and education and interpretation staff. The panel will be moderated by Isabel L. Taube, Co-Managing Editor, and Kimberly Orcutt, Executive Editor, Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide.
Virginia M. G. Anderson is the Curator of American Art and Department Head of American Painting & Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) and is an Adjunct Professor in the Program in Museums and Society at Johns Hopkins University. Since arriving at the BMA in 2018 she has organized six exhibitions focused on work by women artists, including Art/Work: Women Printmakers in the WPA (November 5, 2023–June 30, 2024). In 2022, she reconceived and reinstalled the American Modernism galleries in the Dorothy McIlvain Scott American Wing at the BMA.
Leo Mazow has been the Louise B. and J. Harwood Cochrane Curator of American Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) since 2016. He was previously Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Arkansas and Curator of American Art at the Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State University. His recent projects include the exhibitions and publications Edward Hopper and the American Hotel (2019–20) and Storied Strings: The Guitar in American Art (2022–23). He is currently organizing the reinstallation of American art for VMFA’s upcoming expansion.
Jeremiah William McCarthy is Chief Curator at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art. During his tenure, he has transformed the museum’s permanent collection galleries into dynamic, rotating displays and has strengthened its holdings of historical and contemporary women artists. He is the curator or co-curator of the exhibitions Inspired Encounters: Women Artists and the Legacies of Modern Art (2022–23); For America: Paintings from the National Academy of Design (2019–22); and Women Artists in Paris, 1850–1900 (2017–18). Previously, he held curatorial positions at the National Academy of Design, the American Federation of Arts, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Sarah Kelly Oehler is the Field-McCormick Chair and Curator, Arts of the Americas, and Vice President of Curatorial Strategy at the Art Institute of Chicago. A specialist in late nineteenth and twentieth century painting, Oehler has organized numerous exhibitions for the museum, including Charles White: A Retrospective (2018). Her current project is Georgia O’Keeffe: “My New Yorks” (2024). She is also leading the team reenvisioning the phased reinstallation of the Americas galleries; those featuring late nineteenth century through mid-twentieth century art were realized in 2019 and 2022, and the team’s focus is now on the earlier American galleries.
This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required at: https://tinyurl.com/reinstall-2