Museum of Contemporary Craft
Curator 2004-12; Director and Chief Curator 2012-14
Link: Museum of Contemporary Craft, now Center for Art and Culture
FOUNDED IN 1937 AS OREGON CERAMIC STUDIO by a group of women volunteers, this organization was one of the oldest of its kind in the US. Known as Contemporary Craft Gallery since 1964, Museum of Contemporary Craft became the new name when the organization was relocated to Portland's Pearl District in 2007. MoCC partnered with Pacific Northwest College of Art in 2009; PNCA closed MoCC in 2016, absorbing its collection and archives into a newly established Center for Art and Culture.
From 2004-12, I served as the Curator responsible for exhibitions, programming and collections. From 2012-14, I served as the Director | Chief Curator. During my tenure, I curated and organized more than 65 exhibitions, hundreds of programs, and brought international attention to MoCC's curatorial programming. In addition to doubling the size of the collection, I initiated the organization's first publishing program, through which more than a dozen catalogs, commissioned essays, and websites were created as well as dozens of podcasts and videos.
More informatioN:
From 2004 to 2012, as Curator of Museum of Contemporary Craft, and then from 2012-14 as Chief Curator | Director, I was directly responsible for the vision, scope, and implementation of the museum’s curatorial, educational, and collection programs. During my decade-long tenure, I curated and organized more than 65 exhibitions, participated in or produced hundreds of public programs, and more than doubled the size of the collection.
Hired to develop and implement a vision for a new kind of contemporary craft museum, goals included: to take the museum into national view; critically engage contemporary craft and historic craft through curatorial programs; and to contribute scholarship through exhibitions and writing to the field. I successfully achieved this through experimental exhibitions, thoughtful scenography, bringing multiple voices into the field through writing and guest curating, and engagement with social media platforms (Tumblr, Flickr), making recorded talks publicly accessible (since 2008), testing the boundaries of interaction within the museum through interactive exhibitions and programs, artist-centric programming, and documenting exhibitions and critical thinking about curatorial practice through my own writing and commissioned writing from scholars, curators, and artists via online platforms and nine print publications.
Successfully created platforms for curatorial experimentation from artists and curators, including: a series of thematic exhibitions responding to the museum’s collections; internships and opportunities for hands-on experience handling, installing, writing about, and condition reporting objects; on-site residencies connecting the collection and making; and creative collaborations with local craft guilds, the Multnomah County Library, colleges and universities, and many other communities and organizations.
Documented craft history in the region through exhibitions and publications by curating early and mid-career examinations of artists who had not yet shown their work in museums, as well as the “Generations” series designed to give historical context to craft in the region by examining the life and work of individuals whose impact changed craft history. Other significant achievements: hosted the first solo museum exhibition of the ceramics of Ai Weiwei and originated two interactive exhibitions (Touching Warms the Art, Object Focus: The Bowl) which have been widely documented in scholarship of the past decade.
Created a space within The Lab for exhibitions and programs with local craft guilds and community organizations.
Engaged in travelling exhibition and exhibition exchanges with museums and organizations, including: Arcadia University; Bellevue Arts Museum; Ceramic Research Center at Arizona State University; Craft Contemporary; Craft in America; Houston Center for ContemporaryCraft; The Creative Arts Gallery at College of the Redwoods; Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at University of Oregon; Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery, Weber State University (Ogden,UT); Milwaukee Art Museum in collaboration with the Chipstone Foundation; Pendleton Center for the Arts, OR; Sheppard Contemporary, University of Nevada (Reno); and more.
Images from selected exhibitions, 2006-2015
