Alison Byrne, deputy director of exhibitions at the Virginia MOCA
We chat with the VAEA’s Museum Art Educator of the Year about life, role
“Tastemakers” introduces you to the people behind the scenes of the Hampton Roads creative community — whether visual or live art, music, dance, theater or food. They are the dreamers of dreams. Influencers. Trendsetters. And they’re inimitably dedicated to enriching the lives and feeding the souls of their peers, one delectation at a time.
Today, we chat with Alison Byrne, deputy director of exhibitions and education at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach.
What do you do and where do you do it? What about your work helped you to recently be named Museum Art Educator of the Year by the Virginia Art Education Association?
The focus of my work is bringing the
vision and mission of the museum to life by creating or selecting high quality, diverse exhibitions focused on the most compelling art of our time, as well as the programming that surrounds them and creates opportunities to learn and connect with our community. It is such a wonderful honor to be recognized for my work by the Virginia Art Education Association. VAEA plays a vital role in highlighting the profession of art education and the exemplary work being done in schools, higher education and museums. The award is a testament to the tireless and longstanding work of my entire team and the museum’s commitment to education in our mission.
What do you look for when considering potential exhibitions or artists to bring to Virginia MOCA?
We are firmly rooted in our community with an eye toward the larger art world and always try to create a balance in the exhibitions we present so that we are reflecting the interests and identities of the diverse audiences who visit. Our curatorial vision is to create vibrant, thought-provoking exhibitions that have both local relevance and national resonance. Examples include the recent Michael Kagan exhibition which highlighted a Virginia Beach-born artist who has gone on to international success. His paintings are all about space exploration and technology, and we scheduled the exhibition to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. It opened exciting possibilities for us to collaborate with NASA Langley Research Center, as well as educational STEAM (Science,
Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) initiatives through our school partnerships. It also provided the opportunity to collaborate with another Virginia Beach native, Pharrell, who wrote for the book that accompanied the exhibition.
Through the exhibitions currently on view, we can showcase internationally renowned artists alongside Virginia artists. This balance gives a taste of what the art world has to offer and opens the doors for visitors to dig deeper into individual artists who may resonate with them.
Our work is all about being culturally responsive. As a non-collecting contemporary art museum, we collaborate with artists who are creating artwork about living in our world right now. It is always timely and can open many pathways to dialogue, partnerships and a unique experience for visitors to see the world through the minds of artists from near and far.
What would surprise people most about your job?
I think people might be surprised by how far ahead I need
to work on the exhibition schedule for the museum. I am always working on a two-to-three-year rolling schedule of exhibitions with the team. Many exhibitions take years to develop because they involve research, working through ideas, discovering new artists, figuring out logistics such as how to move certain artwork, designing the gallery spaces, creating customized public programming, cultivating partnerships with other organizations such as schools and other nonprofits, and fundraising to pay for everything. It is a real team
effort across all departments.
What’s your favorite exhibition so far, or which one are you most proud of?
I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to work with a talented and insightful team, and I am proud of all the work we do. I feel most proud when our work has a direct impact on others, from the students and teachers who visit (virtually now), our community and the artists we collaborate with. One exhibition I am especially proud of is “Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose” from 2016. It was a very ambitious project, and it traveled to the Akron Art Museum in Ohio and the Crocker Art Museum in California after Virginia MOCA. It included 50 artists and artworks from across the world — making it one of the most logistically challenging we have tackled — but made such an impact in Virginia Beach. It drew visitors from all over the country to our city.
Who or what would be your dream artist to show or works to exhibit?
Well, we are always dreaming and the list of artists we would like to show is continuously growing. That’s the challenging part. I have been fortunate over the past decade to check a lot of names off our dream list: Maser, Mickalene Thomas, Michael Kagan, Wayne White, Hank Willis Thomas, Inka Essenhigh, Barnaby Barford, Ebony G. Patterson … I could go on. One of the most rewarding parts of my job is access to incredible works of art and their creators. It is an honor and a privilege to be able to spend so much time with them when they are at Virginia MOCA.