Emily Hogrefe-Ribeiro Joins the Georgia Museum of Art

Emily Hogrefe-Ribeiro

University students of every discipline are constantly looking to the future. With academic deadlines and seemingly endless lists of internships and applications to complete, it can be difficult to imagine one’s life past graduation. The latest addition to the Georgia Museum of Art, Emily Hogrefe-Ribeiro, can relate to students who take time to figure out where they are meant to be. She graduated with an undergraduate degree in art history in 2011 and now holds the position of assistant curator of education. In a brief interview, Hogrefe-Ribeiro discussed the path she took to get here, the value of her work and what she looks forward to in the future.

After finishing her undergraduate degree at Sarah Lawrence College, Hogrefe-Ribeiro says she spent a few years doing some internal searching — a possibility with which no undergraduate is unfamiliar. She then worked as an artist’s studio assistant, a gallery attendant in a museum and a marketing assistant for a historic house museum. With some time in the field under her belt, she returned to get her graduate degree from Tulane University, with a background in contemporary art of the African diaspora and a focus on education.

She then interned with the National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., as part of her graduate studies and completed her graduate internship at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, where she worked with local schools. Among other projects, she created art-integrated programs for 7th-graders and their teachers during multiple visits to the museum. She also worked with student and continuing education docent programs.

In her search for the next step after her graduate internship, she came across the opening at the Georgia Museum of Art. “I had friends visiting for the fourth of July,” Hogrefe-Ribeiro said, “And I was like ‘Oh my goodness, this position sounds perfect!’ So, I sent them off to continue to have fun and I pounded out my application in two days.” Luckily, Hogrefe-Ribeiro had visited Athens before and had found it very much to her liking. She saw stand-out qualities of the museum in the number of field trips regularly coming through its doors, the community and student docent programs and the size of the teaching collection.

She points out that the galleries are incredibly useful as an educational tool because they are arranged chronologically and focus on different trends in the development of American art, including a great cross-section of works by African American artists. Frequently rotating exhibitions fill gaps in the permanent collection and provide spotlights through which to examine artistic concepts in tighter focus.

Hogrefe-Ribeiro’s position allows her to guide directly the ways in which visitors to the museum learn. This accessibility to historic material and the relationship of the museum to the university and the surrounding community appeal to her drive to knock down elitist roadblocks in the field of art history. “What’s the point of learning all this stuff in graduate school if you only are speaking to one niche audience?” she asked, “I want everyone to know what I know and have access to what I’ve had access to.”

Now Hogrefe-Ribeiro is working on 5th-grade tours, a donor-funded program that allows every 5th-grade student in Athens-Clarke County to come to the museum. This year, all 5th-grade tours have been scheduled to come during the run of “Richard Hunt: Synthesis.” These tours are supplemented by tactility-centered art carts and interpretive activities to lay foundations for art appreciation. The tours are led by the community and student docent corps, which Hogrefe-Ribeiro will take over leadership of in the spring. She is excited about revisiting and adapting tour stops to put new spins on the way visitors experience the museum’s collections.

And how is she settling in? After one month, Athens already feels like home, she said. Although she’s only been at the museum a few weeks, and she looks forward to learning its intricacies and taking on more as she goes, the job so far suits her perfectly. “I’m excited by what I’m doing,” she said. “I feel very personally fulfilled coming to work each day.”

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Penske McCormack

Intern, Department of Communications

Seeing the Museum Through the Eyes of Security Supervisor Michael Dean

Portrait of Michael Dean by Christie Newman

We recently met with Michael Dean, security supervisor at the Georgia Museum of Art, for a conversation and impromptu tour through the galleries. As part of the security staff, Dean has spent hundreds of hours in the galleries, which grants him a unique perspective on the museum and its collection. Read on for the compelling insights and joy he finds in working and living surrounded by art.

Interviewer: What led you to work at the Georgia Museum of Art in particular; had you worked for other museums or galleries in the past?

Dean: I’m a long-time Athens resident, and I was [previously] working on North Campus for the graduate school – a sit-down office job that involved staring at a computer all day. It could be stimulating at times because I was reviewing dissertations, but after a while I wanted something that got me on my feet and moving around more like a museum or library. Someplace where there’s some beauty, knowledge and interest.

What does a normal work day look like for you and the other guards?

What we do is pretty varied. I do a fair amount of paperwork, it’s still more or less an office job, but I get to get out on the floor as well. Essentially I’m a supervisor.

How do you stay engaged while working in the galleries themselves?

When I’m out there; if there are patrons, you’re required to be where they are to keep an eye on them without being intrusive, but if there are no patrons, I’ll typically look at the art.

As we walked through the galleries, Michael pointed out paintings; some because he enjoyed them and others for their value as talking points with patrons. We went to the Kress Gallery, which holds Italian Renaissance paintings of mostly, if not entirely Christian religious figures, for an example.

There are patrons for whom the presence of the guards makes them nervous, they don’t like being watched. So it’s nice to come up with conversation points to break the ice a little bit. One of them that I use is this work right here (“St. Paul and St. Augustine”). What strikes me about this work what I think sets it apart from everything else in the room, is that the artist actually used men of color. Everyone else in here is lily white, but there’s almost no chance any of these figures were caucasian. That work always jumps out at me because it probably is much closer to what those men looked like in real life.

"St. Paul and St. Augustine"

What is your favorite part about your job?

Being able to get up and move around and interact with people. At my old job, I was delighted when the phone rang because I got to speak to another human being, but here I get to be social every day.

Which traveling exhibition have you found the most memorable?

Actually, it’s up right now [through Sunday] – the Buddhist exhibition. I’m always amazed that I’m standing in there with craftsmanship and art that was created in the 3rd century. The age of it in and of itself is awe inspiring to me.

Which painting or paintings in the permanent collection are your favorite(s)?

Paul Cadmus's "Playground"

(In reference to Paul Cadmus’s “Playground”) I was a Cadmus fan before I even came here. I’ve always liked Cadmus because when he does these urban cityscapes and magical realism thing, every figure seems to have a story. There’s something going on with everybody in here. What I like is the variety of each figure and the notion that everyone’s got a narrative.

Jared French's "Music"

(In reference to Jared French’s “Music”) The first time I looked at it I thought to myself: these, to me, look like celestial figures. From the colors, I think of the center figure as the sun, the right as the earth and the left as the sea.

How does art fit into your life outside the museum?

I’ve always had an interest in it. I always used to confuse my roommates; in my first year of undergrad the poster merchants came through Tate, and all my friends would buy, say, Cindy Crawford. The first one I bought was [an Albert] Bierstadt print. I would put this up and whoever I was rooming with would always be confused because I had a Bierstadt landscape on the wall.

What’s the value of seeing works of art in person?

My first response to art is always immediate, visceral. Or it takes me someplace. When you work in a museum, and you’re around it every day, I think it broadens your appreciation. This is colored by my job because part of what we do is we’re meant to protect the art. Our old guard Ed [Tant] used to say, “our job is to protect art from art lovers,” because that’s the number-one threat out there. They want to get right up to the painting; it always breaks your heart a little bit because the people you usually want to correct are the people who love it the most. Yet, as for the value of being able to see art in person, there’s a star quality you could say. In a sense, you’re in the same place as that artist.

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Savannah Guenthner

Intern, Department of Communications

How Small is the World to Phillip Bond?

Bond with some works from the museum's permanent collection 

Do you remember the last time you said “It’s a small world”? Maybe it was when you ran into an old friend at Starbucks or found out that you share an acquiantance with a friend. For Phillip Bond, a security guard at the Georgia Museum of Art, that phrase carries a larger significance.

Recently, the works of Louise Blair Daura were on display at the museum. Coincidentally, Bond has some personal knowledge of her husband, Pierre. Known for their artistry and creativity, Mr. and Mrs. Daura were both excellent artists, and we asked Bond to tell us about his connection to them.

Can you tell us a little about yourself and your family? Where are you from?

I grew up in an art family. My father was a chairman at a small college in Virginia called Stratford College. He knew quite a few people in New York; he studied at Cochran University in Washington D.C., and in the 1940s he traveled to New York, where he met my mother who studied at Parsley School of Design. When I see the different artists being featured at the Georgia Museum of Art, like Clinton Hill, I get a particular connection. I feel like if my dad didn’t know him personally, he certainly would have known of them, including Pierre Daura. He was at Lynchburg College—a women’s college similar to Stratford.

What connection do you have to the state of Virginia? Were you born and raised there? Did you move because of work?

Yeah, I was raised there. My parents were in Brooklyn Heights when I was born. They had part of a studio for painters around the lower part of Manhattan. We moved to Denver when I was 2. There was a person named Harriet Fitzgerald, who graduated from Randolph-Macon Women’s College. She probably [knew] Pierre and Daura. But it was her and her sister, Ida Fitzgerald—who was the dean of Stratford College. They got my dad and mom onto the faculty.

Do you have a background in art?

I didn’t go to school for art. I have a master’s degree in Museum Education and worked for 16 years. In college, I did ceramics instead of drawing. I picked up drawing in the last few months, and with my terrible handwriting, I never thought I could draw. But being that my family is so proficient in art, I learned that my drawing skills are pretty genetic.

Did you realize that Pierre was Louise Blair Daura’s husband before now?

I think as I read the description of the show they brought her relation to Pierre Daura forward. I could also tell that she was from Virginia from her name “Louise Blair.” That’s a big Virginia name.

How does it feel to know that you knew the husband of the artist whose works are being hung in the museum? I would honestly think that it’s such a funny coincidence.

I never knew him personally, but when I see his work I feel there's a connection. There are also similarities between my mother’s and father’s work. My mom liked to do a lot of Post-Impressionist paintings, so I have a better appreciation for her work. I have them all hanging up in my house. Growing up, you see it—but to come into the museum and see other artists doing that same type of work…there’s just a feeling and a connection.


Marquan Norris
Intern, Department of Communications 

Staff Spotlight: Taylor Lear Joins the Team as Assistant Editor

Taylor Lear

As 2017 projects begin to wind down and the year comes to a close, the department of communications has one last addition before ringing in 2018. Taylor Lear has joined the department in the role of assistant editor. Although she is just getting started, Taylor is confident that this position will be a great fit for both her and the museum. In the midst of settling into her new job, she sat down with us to discuss her past experiences and hopes for the future.

Can you explain what you will be doing in your new role of assistant editor?

As the new assistant editor, I am joining Hillary Brown and Michael Lachowski in the department of communications, where I will be helping to produce the museum’s quarterly publication, Facet. I will also be working on all of the exhibition catalogues that the communications department produces each year, as well as taking care of wholesale orders and other various projects as needed.

What were you doing before coming to the Georgia Museum of Art?

For the past year, I have been living in New York, working on my master’s degree in Publishing at Pace University. I was a graduate assistant for my program, and I worked at W. W. Norton & Company as well. After I finished all of my coursework I decided to come back to the South, since I am from Roswell, Georgia and most of my family lives close by.

What excites you the most about working at the museum?

The thing that I find most exciting about the museum and its publications is the range of topics that I will have the opportunity to work on. From early Georgia gunsmiths and the history of craft at the University of Georgia to modern photography and historical figures, I have a feeling that the diverse subject matter will allow me to learn about and appreciate more areas than I had ever imagined.

What are your initial impressions of the museum?

I have admittedly not been here for very long, but so far all of the other employees have been extremely welcoming and ready to help me get started in any way they can. The museum itself is also world class, and I am so grateful to be able to work in this type of environment. So my initial impression has definitely been a positive one!

Are you familiar with the Athens area?

I received my bachelor’s degrees from the University of Georgia in May 2016, so I actually lived here for four years before moving north to start my master’s program. I’ve been gone for about a year and a half, but moving back feels like coming home.

So you are excited to be back?

Definitely! I am tremendously happy to be back in Athens. I’m excited to see what has changed in the time I’ve been gone and what is just the same. It also feels great to be back in a town that cares about college football as much as I do! Overall, I am delighted that I found the perfect job in my favorite place in the world.

Staff Spotlight: The Poetic Talents of Chevelyn Curtis

Chevelyn Curtis

If you’ve ever explored the Georgia Museum of Art, chances are that you’ve seen Chevelyn Curtis countless times. Although she often comes off as shy and reserved, those who know her know that she has a great sense of humor as well as a contagious smile to go with it. Her friendly personality allows anyone around her to feel comfortable and welcome. Chevelyn has been working at the museum for years, first as a part-time security guard and now as a full-time security guard. Recently, she created her own blog to showcase her poetry: http://IHeartPoetrySite.Wordpress.com. Chevelyn was kind enough to sit down with us and give us some backstory about her writing and experiences.

How long have you been writing poetry?

I started in my sophomore year in high school, so about… 13 years? I don’t write as much as I used to though. I’m always busy.

Reading your poetry, we see that a few of them seem to revolve around the theme of love. Do you often hesitate to post something so intimate online?

Not really. This is actually the first time that I’ve actually posted anything online. I’ve entered contests—I never won—but every poem that I sent in has been published in a book. I’m pretty used to my work being out there for the public to see.

Some people use poetry as an outlet. There’s no denying that putting your heart on a sheet of paper can result in so much relief, whether emotional or mental. Is that why you write?

Yes. I was teased a lot so, I reached a breaking point and almost thought about committing suicide. I found writing—and the fun thing is that it was a school assignment, and I ended up liking it. I was able to write off the top of my head. I didn’t need to think about it. 

On your site, the first thing you see is a headline that reads: “My Love for Poetry Will Hopefully Inspire You in Some Way.” If you desire that readers take something away from your writing, what do you want it to be?

I’m hoping that it’ll inspire people to write more and express themselves. If my poem could help them in any way, I’m all for that too. Actually, I do have a poem about being teased that I will be posting soon.

Does being a security guard for the Georgia Museum of Art fuel your artistic side? I imagine that poets would love to be around beautiful art because both serve to tell stories.

Honestly, no. I do like the paintings we have here, but they don’t really inspire me or fuel me to write.

Is it hard for you to be so vulnerable on paper and then to upload your innermost thoughts for even strangers to see? Does that kind of courage come naturally to you? Or is it something you had to work toward?

I’m definitely still working on that. I’m very shy and I’m like… the quiet one. Unless I’m comfortable around you. Then I’m a completely different person. This takes a lot of courage because it took me a long time to actually act on this. I’ve been thinking about making a blog for the longest. 

In your biography on your website, you thank viewers for making your dreams come true. What exactly are your dreams and aspirations?

Well, my main goal was to publish a book of my poems. However, I kept hitting roadblocks with that because I didn’t want to spend a lot of money to get it done and I didn’t have the money for it anyway. So that’s when the blog idea popped into my head. But my goal, in short, is to just get my poetry out there. The only downside to writing my own book would be the book tours and reading in front of people. I hate public speaking.

On your blog in your introduction page, you mention that you’ve endured bullying. Thankfully, you found writing. What advice do you have to people who also endure hardships that you’ve endured?

Well, I couldn’t escape harassment because I got it at school and at home. I didn’t have an outlet, and one day I told my mom about the assignment and she just told me to write what I felt. Doing that really helped, so I would say, “find an outlet.” You can write, draw, or sing… Do whatever you can to get it out.

Marq Norris
Intern, Department of Communications