director’s message

 

The summer has passed and our students are beginning to return back to campus. We have been busy with a small group of student staff and volunteers who assisted us with a variety of projects. They included preparations for our upcoming exhibitions; the continuation of our IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) conservation assessment project, which included re-housing collection works into newly purchased collection storage flat files; updating our major documents to reflect any changes of this past year for our AAM subsequent accreditation site visit; reorganization and clean-up of many of our master filing archives; internal facility painting and improvements; and the closure of a recruitment process for a museum staff position. It has been a great summer!

 

We are pleased to announce our new Curator of Exhibits and Collections is Lindsey Wylie Kouvaris. She comes to us with six years of experience working in art museums and art organizations with a focus on curatorial work.She has previously worked for the San Jose Museum of Art, McKinney Avenue Contemporary, and more recently Montalvo Arts Center as their Artistic Programs Manager. Kouvaris has experience in coordination and planning of all arts programs including the visual arts, performing arts, lectures and conversations, in addition to film screenings. She has conceptualized and implemented education programs and has produced program content for websites, advertising, and printed collateral materials.

 

A Santa Clara alumna, Lindsey graduated in 2002 with a B.A. in Art History. She went on to continue her educational work and received an M.A. in Art History from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Lindsey's art career began early while at Santa Clara, where she served as Registration Assistant to our Collections Manager in 1999. Please join us in welcoming Lindsey to the de Saisset Museum and the Santa Clara University community.

 

I would like to thank Kelly Detweiler, Andrea Pappas, Julie Ferrario, Vicki Lance, George Rivera, Sharon Yoerg, Paula Kirkeby, and my staff members for serving on the screening committee for the Curator position. Your participation and insight were greatly appreciated.

 

The Museum will be concluding its subsequent accreditation process with the American Association of Museums through a two-day site visit. This visit will be conducted in mid-November. We should be receiving notification of our accreditation status in the early part of 2010.

 

We would like to take a moment to thank our Guest Curator, Sheryl Nonnenberg, for assembling three thematic exhibition presentations for the fall 2009 quarter. She picked-up the few elements which were already in place and hit the ground running, developing all of the content and educational programs. We are impressed with the experience and expertise she brought to these projects and enjoyed working with her.

 

Our fall presentations are focused on the landscape theme, with one exhibition highlighting an important private collection featuring an array of prominent contemporary artists. The Art of Richard Mayhew: Journey’s End requires special mention, due to the concurrent presentations of his work at two other Bay Area institutions, The Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History and The Museum of the African Diaspora. These exhibitions span a forty year career of a well-deserving artist and educator.

 

We look forward to seeing you in the Museum soon!

 

Rebecca M. Schapp

Director