The Portland Museum has partnered with Western Middle School to offer an after school program titled the Young Curators Club. !3 seventh and 8th grade students have chosen to work with me and Teresa Lee of the Museum to create an exhibition for the Museum.
Meeting weekly beginning February, the students have chosen to explore artist studios in their Portland neighborhood in order to find artwork to select for an exhibition they have decided to call New Artists of Portland.
The young curators have selected and invited 13 artists and art studios to participate. The work included ranges from painting and drawing to mixed media sculpture, architectural design, photography and a variety of contemporary craft approaches to glass, quilting that stretch boundaries of artmaking today. The diversity of work and methods echos the diversity and energy of the Portland neighborhood today. Exciting things are happening there, and the exhibition reflects this new creative spirit.
Studios visited included
Dork Studio (Mark Brown & Doree Woods)
Naomi Stuecker (and Bob Cheever)
At Tim Faulkner's art space -Carol McLeod , Damon Thompson, Jen Goodell, Tomisha Lovely-Allen, Drew Martin
At the Lytle St. Studios - Denise Furnish, Jake Heustis, Chris Radtke, Rosalie Rosenthal, Letitia Quesenberry
At the LVA -Clare Hirn
At WorK Architecture+Design Tyler Watkins, John Haley
Bryan Holden
Western Middle School is an arts magnet school within the Jefferson County Public School system. The Young Curators Club is designed to enrich their visual arts experience and begin to introduce possibilities for careers in the visual arts from independent artist to museum curator. Their experience includes the complete range of activities associated with exhibition development from selection of exhibition theme, artists and artwork to publicity, administration, documentation and installation.
Funded in part by a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the exhibition will open at the Portland Museum, 2308 Portland Ave, 40212 on Sunday April 24, and continues until June 12.
Young Curators Visiting Tim Faulkner Gallery and Artist Studion.
Young Curators at the LVA.
Young Curators in Clare Hirn's studio.
Talking with Jake Heustis
Chris Radtke explaining her methods and materials.
DORK Studio artists Doree Woods and Mark Brown talk with students.
Naomi Stuecker (left) answers questions.
Rosalie Rosenthal and Letitia Quesenberry enjoy Young Curators' questions.
The group considers the Museum gallery space with artist Naomi Stuecker and myself.
Denish Furnish talks with two young curators about her work.
Sculptor Bryan Holden leads a tour of his studio.
For more information about the Portland Museum visit their Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/theportlandmuseum