‘OPEN HOUSE: ART ABOUT HOME’
to come see. But I’m organizing exhibitions that I feel that people who would live anywhere would want to come and see. One of the hallmarks of this museum is that it’s intimate and accessible.”
Goals for “Open House”: “One of the things I really wanted to do was the raise the profile of the [McCormick] house itself, because I think a lot of people don’t know that it’s here. I would like to create this dialogue or cohesion among the different parts of the institution. As I was working in the house, I started thinking about: What is a house? What is a home? I thought it would be interesting to do an exhibition of artists who depict homes in their work or deal with issues related to home. And with the housing crisis, it seemed like a timely subject.”
Favorite artist: “I did my thesis on Edvard Munch [best known for ‘The Scream’] in graduate school, and so he has always been the artist that I look to for inspiration.”
Becoming a curator: “I had an internship at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston when I was in graduate school, and that really was my first connection with contemporary art: seeing the living artist coming in and changing over the museum and constantly making it seem different and look different. And also the [highly controversial] Robert Mapplethorpe [photography] show was there at the time and I saw what an incredible impact that art could have on discussion, society and dialogue, and I just thought it was fantastic, and, so, there was no looking back from that point.”
Kyle MacMillan is a local freelance writer.