Curator Chronicles and Upcoming Tours at Two

The latest research and scholarship by our museum’s curators has attracted audiences beyond the walls of the Georgia Museum of Art. Sarah Kate Gillespie, curator of American art, recently completed a book, "The Early American Daguerreotype: Cross-currents in Art and Technology," published by the MIT Press, and delivered a talk and hosted a book signing at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. At the lecture, Gillespie traced the activities of a unique mix of artists, scientists and mechanical tinkerers who took the daguerreotype and turned it, in the words of the MIT Press, into "something wholly and remarkably new: a product of science and innovative technology that resulted in a visual object." Gillespie also participated as a panelist at “New Eyes on Alice Austen,” a roundtable discussion held earlier this year at the Whitney Museum of American Art in honor of Women’s History Month and Austen’s 150th birthday.

Book signing with Sarah Kate Gillepie, curator of American art

In June, Lynn Boland, Pierre Daura Curator of European Art, presented a paper at Stockholm University titled "The Politics of Technology in the New York Collection [for Stockholm], 1973," for the European Society for Literature, Science and the Arts. The collection was donated to the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 1973 at the height of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Although many of the artists — and even the works of art themselves — were decidedly antiwar, the donation of the collection ignited fierce debate within the Swedish artistic community.

Also this summer, Dale Couch, curator of decorative arts, served as a juror for the critique of the Instant Gallery for the American Association of Woodturners, which exhibits the work of hundreds of intermediate and advanced wood artists during the annual Wood Art Symposium. Couch also sat on a panel at the Collectors of Wood Art Forum to discuss how artists can learn and benefit from critiques.

For local audiences who wish to tap into the talent and inside knowledge of our resident experts, join us for our upcoming Tours at Two. On Wednesday, August 17 at 2 p.m., Boland will lead a tour of the exhibition "Paper in Profile: Mixografia and Taller de Gráfica Mexicana," and Gillespie will lead a tour of the newly reinstalled permanent collection galleries on Wednesday, August 31 at 2 p.m. At this week's Tour at Two, "Visitors' Choice," Boland will speak on "Folded Squares," a neon light sculpture by Nils Folke Anderson. For a full list of our programs, including lectures, tours and family activities, visit our monthly calendar.

Stella Tran
Editor, Department of Communications