Dear Colleagues,

 

Please share this announcement with anyone who may be interested.  Thank you.

 

Ms.Erin McKeen

Assistant Registrar

The Wolfsonian–Florida International University

Miami Beach, Florida

(305) 535-2678 (phone) ; (305) 531-2133 (fax)

E-Mail: [log in to unmask]

Website: http://www.wolfsonian.fiu.edu/

 

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACT: 

Julieth Dabdoub 

305.535.2622

[log in to unmask]

CREATOR, COLLECTOR, CATALYST: 

THE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Symposium to Be Held in Miami Beach, December 5–6, 2006

Discussions to Explore Community Impact and Importance to Key Constituencies

Co-organized by The Wolfsonian-Florida International University and 

Princeton University Art Museum

Miami Beach, FL (August 8, 2006) – The Wolfsonian–Florida International University and the Princeton University Art Museum today announced they will co-organize a symposium exploring the role of the university art museum. “Creator, Collector, Catalyst: The University Art Museum in the Twenty-first Century” will be held December 5 and 6, 2006, in Miami Beach, just prior to the opening of Art Basel/Miami Beach. The symposium is funded in part by the Dade Community Foundation through the John S. and James L. Knight Donor-Advised Fund and The Cowles Charitable Trust, with support from Art Basel/Miami Beach, the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, and the Sagamore Hotel.  

The symposium is being organized by Cathy Leff, director, The Wolfsonian–FIU, and Susan Taylor, director, Princeton University Art Museum. The symposium will promote a broad discussion about the university art museum and explore various aspects of its distinctive roles—as nexus of scholarship in the arts, innovator in museum programming, training ground for museum professionals, and platform for serving the cultural needs of the community. Panels will be comprised of individuals from inside and outside the university museum field to ensure a diversity of opinions and voices. 

The symposium will be free and open to the public and takes place at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Princeton University President Shirley M. Tilghman will be the keynote speaker at a luncheon on Tuesday, December 5.

Panels and speakers include:

The Research Agenda: Object-based Learning: Moderated by The Wolfsonian’s Marianne Lamonaca, chief curator and associate director for curatorial affairs and education, this panel will address the ways in which university art museums offer an opportunity for curators, who are trained to interpret and present objects, to work with scholars from disciplines that traditionally have not emphasized object-based research. The participants will explore both the challenges and opportunities raised by these collaborations and their impact on teaching and research in the humanities. Panelists include: Yve-Alain Bois, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey; Dennis Doordan, chairman, Department of Art, Art History and Design, University of Notre Dame; Elizabeth Rodini, associate director, Program in Museums and Society, and visiting lecturer, Department of the History of Art, Johns Hopkins University, and formerly Mellon Curator, David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago; and Jeffrey Schnapp, director, Stanford Humanities Lab, Stanford University. 

The Role of the University Museum in the Life of the Community

This panel, moderated by Kimerly Rorschach, director, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, will address such issues as how the university art museum fits into the life of the city; its responsibility to the university and the community; the role that the university museum can play in supporting the community’s aspirations and growing its cultural assets; and the ways in which arts and culture fit into the university agenda and can have an impact on endowment. Panelists include Robert Frankel, director of museums and visual arts, National Endowment for the Arts; Mark Rosenberg, chancellor, State University System of Florida, and former provost, Florida International University; Mitchell Wolfson, Jr., founder, The Wolfsonian–FIU.

Beyond Graduation: The Next Generation of Museum Professionals, Collectors, Museum-goers, Shapers of Contemporary Culture, Trustees, and Philanthropists. This panel, moderated by Anthony G. Hirschel, director of the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, will consider the role of university art museums in shaping the museum profession and in educating students, many of whom will assume leadership roles in the artistic, philanthropic, corporate, not-for-profit, and government sectors, where they will have the opportunity to shape and affect future cultural experiences for their communities. The panel will also examine the importance of creating new audiences for the museum experience. Panelists are Bruce Altshuler, director of the program in museum studies, Graduate School of Arts and Science, New York University; Lisa Corrin, director, Williams College Museum of Art; Philip Nowlen, director, Getty Leadership Institute; Justin Rockefeller, Princeton ’02, cofounder, GenerationEngage; and Jordan Schnitzer, collector and philanthropist, Portland, Oregon.

How Does the University Museum Measure Success?

This panel, moderated by Susan M. Taylor, director of the Princeton University Art Museum, will explore the measures used by the university art museum to benchmark success, and how they differ from those used by other types of public art museums. Various constituencies will discuss expectations for the university art museum as they relate to new scholarship and access, the use of collections by faculty and students for teaching and research, and the role of the exhibition program for public and university audiences. Panelists are Maxwell Anderson, director and CEO, Indianapolis Museum of Art, and author of “Metrics of Success in Art Museums”; Marion Goethals, private museum consultant and former deputy director and interim director, Williams College Museum of Art; Steven J. Tepper, associate director, Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy, and assistant professor of sociology, Vanderbilt University.

The University as Patron of New Works

Moderated by Richard Andrews, director, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, this panel will consider the ways in which the university museum can support contemporary artistic practice and serve as a locus for new work and emerging artists. Panelists are Ann Hamilton, artist and MacArthur Fellow; Lawrence Rinder, dean, California College of the Arts, and former curator, Whitney Museum of Art; and Hamza Walker, director of education/associate curator, Renaissance Society, University of Chicago.

Because of the popularity of Art Basel/Miami Beach, attendees are encouraged to reserve hotel rooms early.  For assistance with travel arrangements, please contact  Demetra at Turon Travel, 2 Wooster Street, New York, NY 10013, 212.925.5453, toll-free 1.800.952.7646; e-mail: [log in to unmask]; www.turontravel.com. Turon Travel can provide arrangements for air, hotels, ground transportation, and other travel needs. Please advise the travel agency that you are with the Wolfsonian symposium.

About The Wolfsonian–Florida International University 

The Wolfsonian is a museum, library, and research center that uses objects to illustrate the persuasive power of art and design, to explore what it means to be modern, and to tell the story of social, historical, and technological changes that have transformed our world. The collections comprise approximately 120,000 objects from the period of 1885 to 1945—the height of the Industrial Revolution to the end of the Second World War—in a variety of media including furniture; industrial-design objects; works in glass, ceramics, and metal; rare books; periodicals; ephemera; works on paper; paintings; textiles; and medals.

The Wolfsonian is located at 1001 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach, Fla. Admission is $7 adults; $5 seniors, students, and children six-12; free for Wolfsonian members, State University System of Florida staff and students with ID, children under six, and Miami Beach residents with ID. The museum is open Monday, Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday from noon-6pm; Thursday and Friday from noon-9pm; and is closed on Wednesday. Contact us at 305.531.1001 or visit us online at www.wolfsonian.org.

The Wolfsonian receives ongoing support from the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts; Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; City of Miami Beach, Cultural Affairs Program, Cultural Arts Council; Crispin Porter + Bogusky; Continental Airlines, the preferred airline of The Wolfsonian; the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Foundation; and Karla Conceptual Event Experience.

About the Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton

Founded in 1882, the Princeton University Art Museum is one of the finest art museums in the country. Its collection features more than 68,000 works ranging from ancient to contemporary art, and concentrating geographically on the Mediterranean regions, Western Europe, China, the United States, and Latin America, with particular strengths in Chinese painting and calligraphy, art of the ancient Americas, and pictorial photography. As a public institution, the museum is committed to serving the local community, the region, and beyond through innovative and dynamic programming, original research, new scholarship, an active loan program, and the organization of touring exhibitions of its works. By collaborating with faculty, students, and staff, and through direct and sustained access to original works of art, the museum contributes to the development of critical thinking and visual literacy at Princeton University. 

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