Foreword

Weber, Susan

Save Cite Share

Free

Foreword

Susan Weber

Description: Objects of Exchange: Social and Material Transformation on the Late...

Objects of Exchange: Social and Material Transformation on the Late Nineteenth-Century Northwest Coast

Objects of Exchange: Social and Material Transformation on the Late Nineteenth-Century Northwest Coast inaugurates the Bard Graduate Center Focus Gallery, a space located in our newly expanded gallery building on West 86th Street in New York City. The Focus Gallery has been conceptualized to present exhibitions curated by BGC faculty and derived from ideas that originated in graduate...

Author

Susan Weber

PublisherBard Graduate Center

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-21879

Foreword

Objects of Exchange: Social and Material Transformation on the Late Nineteenth-Century Northwest Coast inaugurates the Bard Graduate Center Focus Gallery, a space located in our newly expanded gallery building on West 86th Street in New York City. The Focus Gallery has been conceptualized to present exhibitions curated by BGC faculty and derived from ideas that originated in graduate seminars, further integrating the Academic Program with BGC Gallery initiatives. While based on the research and scholarship of a BGC professor, each exhibition will be realized through the collaborative efforts of a team, in which the professor-curator is joined by BGC graduate students and members of the gallery staff, supported by the Web site and digital media facilities at the BGC. Two professor-curated Focus Gallery exhibitions are planned for each academic year. They will be installed alongside exhibitions in our Main Gallery, where we will continue to examine aspects of the decorative arts, design history, and material culture.

Curated by Professor Aaron Glass, Objects of Exchange comprises thirty-five loans—among them wooden and argillite figures, throwing sticks, rattles, wooden chests, a dance apron, and two headdresses—selected from the collection of North American Ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History, our new institutional partner and neighbor on New York’s Upper West Side. The thematic interpretation of this fascinating group of objects enhances our understanding of the Northwest Coast in the late nineteenth century and raises important questions about how these objects are classified and shown in museums. The catalogue that accompanies the exhibition, edited by Professor Glass—with contributions by Mique’l Askren, Margaret Blackman, Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse, Kimon Keramidas, Judith Ostrowitz, Megan Smetzer, and Nina Stritzler-Levine, as well as Professor Glass—further elucidates the various factors that contributed to the artistic production of the indigenous people of the Northwest Coast. It also explicates the use of digital media in the exhibition and in the Focus Gallery concept. Graduate students in Professor Glass’s class wrote catalogue entries for the objects in the exhibition, and I am tremendously proud of their work: Emily Deason, Lara Hutcheman, Mei-Ling Israel, Eugenia Kisin, Rebecca Klassen, Cassidy Luitjen, Lauren McDaniel, Catherine Brooke Penaloza, and Eleanor Williams. Catherine Brooke Penaloza also created an exemplary graphic for the Relational Index included in the catalogue.

I would like to thank Ellen Futter, Director of the American Museum of Natural History, for agreeing to this collaboration and for the wonderful loans from the AMNH. Additional thanks to the Richard Gilder Graduate School of the American Museum of Natural History and the Division of Anthropology, AMNH for sponsoring Professor Glass’s AMNH affiliation. I greatly appreciate the initial support that Professor Glass received for this project from Peter Whiteley, Curator of North American Ethnology, Division of Anthropology at the AMNH, and from Dean Peter Miller at the Bard Graduate Center. Dean Miller’s leadership helped make the concept of the Focus Gallery a reality, and his commitment to making exhibitions part of the academic life of the BGC has also helped nurture faculty involvement in this new direction. Nina Stritzler-Levine, Chief Curator of the BGC Gallery, worked closely with Dean Miller on the early conceptualization of the Focus Gallery and with Professor Glass on its realization.

We have also benefited from the professionalism and assistance of staff at the American Museum of Natural History. Kristen Mable, Registrar for Archives and Loans, Division of Anthropology, and Jan Riley, Registrar, Permanent Collections, assisted with our loan requests and worked with Judith Levinson, Director of Conservation, Division of Anthropology, and Samantha Alderson, Conservator, Division of Anthropology, in preparing the loans. Barry Landua, Systems Analyst in the Department of Anthropology, responded cordially to our many requests for photographs and related materials, and Denis Finnin provided excellent new photographs when needed.

I am delighted that this project has fostered teamwork between staff members in Academic Programs and in the Gallery, many of whom were working together for the first time. I would like to thank the rest of the project team: Kimon Keramidas, Assistant Director for Digital Media Lab; Ian Sullivan, Exhibition Designer and Chief Preparator; Olga Tetkowski, Administrator, Curatorial Projects; Han Vu, Digital Technology Designer; and Graham White, Webmaster. I would also like to thank Eric Edler, BGC Registrar; Alexis Mucha, Coordinator of Catalogue Photography; and Ann Tartsinis, Assistant Curator, for their assistance with this project.

This publication benefited from the assistance of many individuals including Barbara Burn, who copyedited the manuscript; Roberta Fineman, our diligent proofreader; and indexer Enid Zafran. Laura Grey, our very talented Director of Graphic Design, created a beautiful catalogue, the first to be designed in house, in collaboration with Han Vu and Helen Dear. I am delighted that Yale University Press will distribute the Focus Gallery books, and I want to thank Sally Salvesen at Yale University Press in London for her assistance.

Objects of Exchange also facilitated new initiatives in our Education Department. Led by Rebecca Allan, working with Melissa Gerstein and Tracy Grosner, we developed a new outreach program called the Suitcase Project, which brought Objects of Exchange into classrooms in schools throughout Manhattan. This and related programs will provide the public with greater knowledge of the art and culture of the Northwest Coast.

This catalogue includes photography from numerous sources, and many individuals provided assistance with this aspect of the project: Alaska State Library, Juneau: Sandra Johnston; American Folk Art Museum, New York: Courtney Wagner; American Museum of Natural History, New York: Kelli Anderson; Art Resource, New York: Jennifer Belt, Robin Stolfi; British Museum Images, London: Agata Rutkowska; Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau, Quebec: Vincent Lafond, Mary Sarsfield; Denver Museum of Nature and Science: Carla Bradmon, Rene Payne; Douglas & McIntyre, Greystone Books, imprints of D&M Publishers, Inc.: Kim Behnke, Jesse Finkelstein; Field Museum, Chicago: Gordon Ambrosino, Jerice Barrios, Antino Curet; Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence: Erika Namaka; National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC: Lou Stancari; National Museum of Natural History, Department of Anthropology, Washington, DC: Donald Hurlbert, Felicia Pickering; Princeton University Art Museum: Bryan Just, Marin Lewis, Karen Richter; Robert Hull Fleming Museum, University of Vermont: Margaret Tamulonis; Howard Roloff; Royal BC Museum, Victoria: Dan Savard, Kelly-Ann Turkington; Seattle Art Museum: Lowell Bassett; SS Beaver, Vancouver: Jonathan Henriksen; Toronto Public Library: Fiona O’Connor, Alan Walker; University of Aberdeen: Neil Curtis, Kim Downie; University of Washington, Special Collections and the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Seattle: Nicolette Bromberg, Christina Burtner, Nancy Hines, Rina Luzius, Ashley Verplank McClelland, Robin Wright; Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas.

Finally, I would like to thank the members of the faculty and the staff of the Bard Graduate Center for their outstanding professionalism and dedication.

Susan Weber

Director

Previous chapter

Base text size -

Chapter images ()