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Dallas, TX— February 13, 2020—Dr. Agustín Arteaga, The Eugene McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA), today announced the appointment of Vivian Crockett as The Nancy and Tim Hanley Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art. Crockett’s expertise in contemporary art includes a specialization in art of the African and Latinx diasporas and the Americas. Her appointment follows several new additions across the DMA’s curatorial departments in the past year—including Vivian Li as The Lupe Murchison Curator of Contemporary Art and the promotion of Anna Katherine Brodbeck to lead the department as Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art—building on the Museum’s breadth of curatorial expertise across cultures, periods, and geographies. Crockett will work closely with Brodbeck and Li to shape a dynamic exhibition and public program schedule that both reflects the Museum’s broad-reaching, internationally focused approach to contemporary art and highlights the strength of the collection. She will begin in her new role on March 9, 2020.
“We have been actively expanding the range of curatorial expertise and programming at the DMA to reflect both the incredible breadth of our encyclopedic collection and our diverse audiences locally, nationally, and internationally,” said Arteaga. “Vivian’s knowledge and scholarly contributions bring an exciting perspective to the research, presentation, and study of contemporary art, and build on the team’s existing expertise across the global spectrum of artistic practice.”
Brodbeck added, “Vivian has a demonstrated commitment to bringing under-explored artists and practices to the fore. I’m looking forward to working with her to support the DMA’s global and inclusive approach to contemporary art and to contributing new scholarship that helps expand the narrative of art history.”
Currently a Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Crockett previously served as the 2017–2018 Andrew W. Mellon Museum Research Consortium Fellow in the department of Media and Performance Art at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, where she provided research and curatorial support for Judson Dance Theater: The Work Is Never Done (2018) and co-organized the 2018 Museum Research Consortium. Crockett additionally co-curated Visual AIDS’ 2017 Day With(out) Art: Alternate Endings, Radical Beginnings, a project that secured funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and screened at over 120 national and international venues. From 2008 to 2011, she was a lead researcher for the collection review process in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Painting and Sculpture department, working with curator Sarah Roberts. In this role, Crockett brought new visibility to overlooked artists whose work was re-exhibited as a result, and advised on the deaccession and accession of works to develop a collection that helped tell the story of the museum’s history, its evolving missions, and its communities.
A PhD candidate in art history at Columbia University, Crockett is currently completing a dissertation on the participatory and media-based work produced by Brazilian artists Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Pape in the late 1960s through the 1970s. She has published scholarly papers in publications by institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Studio Museum in Harlem, and Leslie-Lohman Museum, among others. She received her undergraduate degree in art history from Stanford University.
“I am thrilled to join the DMA, an institution that has been at the forefront of shaping conversations on historic and contemporary art practices,” said Crockett. “The collection’s international scope in postwar and contemporary art will allow us to further the DMA’s commitment to representing the diverse histories and cultures of visitors through exhibitions and programs that are transnational, highlight understudied and underrepresented artists, and support contemporary artists.”
About the DMA Contemporary Art Collection
The Dallas Museum of Art has one of the leading collections of contemporary art in an American encyclopedic museum. The collection encompasses over 4,000 works from 1945 to the present, including major holdings of Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism; Conceptualism, time-based media, and installation works; photography; and the work of emerging artists. The Museum has particular strengths in German, Italian, East Asian, and Latin American art, as well as in art of the African diaspora. Additions of work by today’s established and emerging artists continue the DMA’s distinguished history of collecting the art of the present, including recent acquisitions of works by Arthur Jafa, Yayoi Kusama, Sam Gilliam, Frank Bowling, James Coleman, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Gary Hume, Walter De Maria, and Haim Steinbach. Works by Texas artists, including David Bates, Annette Lawrence, and Ludwig Schwarz, have consistently been acquired.
About the Dallas Museum of Art
Established in 1903, the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is among the 10 largest art museums in the country and is distinguished by its commitment to research, innovation, and public engagement. At the heart of the Museum and its programs is its global collection, which encompasses 25,000 works and spans 5,000 years of history, representing a full range of world cultures. Located in the nation’s largest arts district, the Museum acts as a catalyst for community creativity, engaging people of all ages and backgrounds with a diverse spectrum of programming, from exhibitions and lectures to concerts, literary events, and dramatic and dance presentations. With a free general admission policy and community outreach efforts, the DMA served more than 900,000 individuals onsite and offsite in 2019. The DMA is an Open Access institution, allowing all works believed to be in the public domain to be freely available for downloading, sharing, repurposing, and remixing without restriction. For more information, visit DMA.org.
The Dallas Museum of Art is supported, in part, by the generosity of DMA Members and donors, the citizens of Dallas through the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
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For more information, please contact:
Regional Media:
Jill Bernstein
214-922-1802
JBernstein@DMA.org
National Media:
Katrina Reynolds / Delaney Smith / Barbara Escobar
2122-671-5184 / 212-671-5160 / 212-671-5174
kreynolds@resnicow.com / dsmith@resnicow.com / bescobar@resnicow.com