Two New Curatorial Appointments At The Barnes Foundation
February 03, 2023
Thom Collins, Neubauer family executive director and president of the Barnes Foundation, recently announced the appointments of two new assistant curators at the Barnes Foundation, Corrinne Chong and TK Smith. Corrinne Chong is an art historian, curator, and educator from Toronto, Canada. She served as research consultant for the 2021 Barnes exhibition, Suzanne Valadon: Model, Painter, Rebel, and has taught Barnes courses including The Nude in France and Hearing Painting, Seeing Music. Prior to the Barnes, she worked in the curatorial department at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, where she developed the 2020 exhibition, Delacroix and Faust: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and served as a key member of the curatorial team for the 2019 exhibition, Early Rubens. In addition to her curatorial projects, Chong has taught in public school classrooms for over a decade as part of her commitment to art education and interdisciplinary pedagogy. TK Smith is a Philadelphia-based curator, writer, and cultural historian. His recent curatorial projects include the 2021 exhibition, Roland Ayers: Calligraphy of Dreams, at the Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia; the 2021 Atlanta Biennial exhibition, Virtual Remains, at the Atlanta Contemporary; and the 2020 exhibition, Zipporah Camille Thompson: Looming Chaos at the Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, Ga. He is a visiting lecturer at Cornell University, where he teaches courses on cultural criticism for the Architecture Art Planning Program, and his writing has been published in Art in America, The Brooklyn Rail, and Art Papers, where he is a contributing editor. In 2021, he was the inaugural writer-in-residence at the Vashon Artist Residency in Washington State and the recipient of an Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant. He is currently the 202223 Monument Lab writer-in-residence. Corrinne and TK bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Barnes curatorial team, and we are thrilled to have them as colleagues, said Nancy Ireson, deputy director for collections and exhibitions and Gund family chief curator. TK and Corrinne are uniquely suited for their roles, with TKs specialization in the material histories and cultures of the African diaspora, and Corrinnes deep knowledge of 19th-century French art. Both have robust backgrounds in education, teaching, and critical writing and will help to shape our exhibitions and publications program as the Barnes enters its second century. As assistant curators, Chong and Smith will serve as key members of the Barness collections and exhibitions team, developing exhibitions and collection-related content including interpretive materials for use in-gallery and on social media; contributing to publications; and leading a variety of classes, talks, and lectures. They will integrate curatorial content into the Barness broader activities in service of new educational initiatives. Collaborating across departments, they will cultivate new ways for artistic partners, students, and visitors to have enduring and meaningful relationships with the Barnes. The Barnes Foundation is a nonprofit cultural and educational institution that shares its unparalleled art collection with the public, organizes special exhibitions, and presents programming that fosters new ways of thinking about human creativity. The Barnes collection is displayed in ensembles that integrate art and objects from across cultures and time periods, overturning traditional hierarchies and revealing universal elements of human expression. Home to one of the worlds finest collections of impressionist, post-impressionist, and modern paintings, including the largest groups of paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Czanne in existence, the Barnes brings together renowned canvases by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, and Vincent van Gogh, alongside African, Asian, ancient, medieval, and Native American art as well as metalwork, furniture, and decorative art. The Barnes Foundation was established by Dr. Albert C. Barnes in 1922 to promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts and horticulture. A visionary collector and pioneering educator, Dr. Barnes was also a fierce advocate for the civil rights of African Americans, women, and the economically marginalized. Committed to racial equality and social justice, he established a scholarship program to support young Black artists, writers, and musicians who wanted to further their education. Dr. Barnes was deeply interested in African American culture and became actively involved in the Harlem Renaissance, during which he collaborated with philosopher Alain Locke and Charles S. Johnson, the scholar and activist, to promote awareness of the artistic value of African art. Since moving to Philadelphia in 2012, the Barnes Foundation has expanded its commitment to diversity, inclusion, and social justice, teaching visual literacy in groundbreaking ways; investing in original scholarship relating to its collection; and enhancing accessibility throughout every facet of its programs. The museum is located at 2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia.
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