Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative Panel Biographies 2004 Richard Armstrong (Panel Chair) Henry J. Heinz II Director, Carnegie Museum of Art Pittsburgh, PA Alan Chong Curator of the Collection, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Boston, MA Mary Jane Jacob Independent curator Chicago, IL Silvia Karman Cubiñá Director, The Moore Space Miami, FL Christine Kim Assistant Curator,The Studio Museum in Harlem New York, NY Michael Monroe Independent curator, writer and advisor Reston, VA Joseph Rosa Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art San Francisco, CA Christina Yang Director of Media Arts, The Kitchen New York, NY Panel Biographies Richard Armstrong (Panel Chair) has been the Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art (CMA) since 1996, where he is responsible for overseeing a core staff of sixty, including five curatorial departments. From 1992-1994, he served as the museum's curator of contemporary art, and, from 1994-1996, as its chief curator. He organized the 1995 Carnegie International, the 52nd in a series of surveys of international contemporary art exhibitions founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1896. At the Carnegie, he also organized exhibitions for Andrea Zittel, Craigie Horsfield, and Manny Farber. Before joining CMA, Mr. Armstrong was a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City and a senior instructor in the Whitney's Independent Study Program. At the Whitney, he curated the 1991, 1989, and 1985 Biennial exhibitions, and organized other shows such as "Mind Over Matter: Concept and Object", "Between Geometry and Gesture", Richard Artschwager, "Recent Drawings", and "Guy Pene du Bois: the 1920s." He also worked as a curator at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art. He has been a board member of Artists Space, NY, White Column, NY, and the Russell Foundation, La Jolla, among others, a contributor to Artforum magazine, and lectures frequently on topics in contemporary art. Return to Top Alan Chong has been Curator of the Collection at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, since 1999. He is responsible for the preservation and interpretation of the museum's rich collection and archives, and develops exhibitions, publications, and conferences. His exhibitions at the Gardner Museum, include: "Cosmè Tura: Painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara"; "Raphael, Cellini, and a Renaissance Banker"; and "Gondola Days: Isabella Stewart Gardner and Her Circle in Venice". Before joining the Gardner Museum, Alan Chong was curator at the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. He has curated several other exhibitions, including "Still-Life Paintings from the Netherlands, 1550-1730", which was shown in Amsterdam and Cleveland, and an exhibition on The Hague School, seen in Toronto. He has written a study of Vermeer's View of Delft and edited a volume of essays, Rethinking Rembrandt. Chong received his Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. His dissertation is a study of the landscape paintings of Aelbert Cuyp. He has worked extensively on Dutch landscape and still-life painting, as well as on patrons and collectors of all periods. Return to Top Mary Jane Jacob is an independent curator based in Chicago whose exhibition programs test the boundaries of public space and relationship of contemporary art to audiences. She has worked closely with artists creating over fifty exhibitions and commissioning over one hundred new artists' projects as chief curator at MCA/Chicago and MoCA/Los Angeles, consulting curator for Fabric Workshop and Museum/Philadelphia, and for such public projects as "Places with a Past" (Charleston, 1991), "Culture in Action," (Chicago, 1993), "Points of Entry" (Pittsburgh, 1996), and "Conversations at The Castle" (Atlanta, 1996). Currently, she is curator for the Spoleto Festival USA's ongoing "Evoking History" program in Charleston, South Carolina. She is co-editor of an upcoming book—Buddha Mind and Contemporary Art: Creating a Culture of Now (University of California Press, fall 2004)—for which she has conducted insightful interviews with a dozen leading figures about their artmaking practices. This volume is the culminating work of "Awake: Art and Buddhism, and The Dimensions of Consciousness," a consortium research effort based in the Bay Area, which she co-organized. In 2005 she will direct the International Design Conference in Aspen. Ms. Jacob is Professor at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and on the adjunct faculty of Bard College's Graduate Center for Curatorial Studies and Silvia Karman Cubiñá is the Director of The Moore Space in Miami, FL, a non-profit experimental art space founded in 2001 by prominent contemporary art collector Rosa de la Cruz. The Moore Space is dedicated to presenting the highest quality international contemporary art forms and to interpreting and contextualizing art from Miami, the Caribbean and South America within this framework. At the Moore Space, she has curated the following exhibitions: "Interplay", "Surveillance" and "Paradise Garage: Jim Lambie." Ms. Cubina held the position of Adjunct Curator at Institute of Visual Arts/University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee from 2001-2003. Prior to this, and as an independent curator, she worked on the following exhibitions and projects: "Landmark", "Allora & Calzadilla", "Escuela de Artes Plasticas", "Javier Cambre: Habitat en Transito Pinones" for the 2002 Whitney Biennial; "Pepon Osorio: Door to Door", "Escuela de Artes Plasticas" for the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Puerto Rico, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico and Museo de San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 1997, she served as Commissioner for Puerto Rico's presentation to the Sao Paulo Biennial, Sao Paulo. Return to Top Christine Kim is the Assistant Curator at The Studio Museum in Harlem where she has organized exhibitions such as "Black Belt" (2003); "Veni Vidi Video" (2003); "Ironic/Iconic" (2002); "Edgar Arceneaux: Drawings of Removal" (2002); "Africaine" (2002) and "For the Record" (2001). She has also co-organized various other exhibitions such as Gary Simmons (2002), and "Freestyle" (2001), and "Isaac Julien: Vagabondia" (2000) with SMH Chief Curator Thelma Golden. Prior to curating exhibitions, Kim worked as a writer for The American Century at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She has also been a lecturer and a panelist at such institutions as the Santa Monica Museum of Art, Princeton University, Temple University, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Asian American Arts Center, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, among others. In 2002 Kim was a visiting professor at the Center for Curatorial Studies graduate program at Bard College and a recipient of the Fund for Arts Research grant from the American Center Foundation. At the Studio Museum, she also manages the Artist-in-Residence Program and organizes the annual exhibition. She received her B.A. from Connecticut College with a dual degree in Art History and French, and a minor in Asian Studies. In 1997, she received an M.A. in Art History and American Studies from New York University. Return to Top Michael Monroe has been involved with contemporary American craft for over 30 years. Prior to his current role as an independent curator, writer and advisor, Monroe served as executive director of the American Craft Council, a 30,000 member national organization whose mission is to promote an understanding and appreciation of American craft. Before joining the ACC, Monroe was president of the Peter Joseph Gallery in New York City, where he organized exhibitions of leading American studio furniture artists. For twenty-one years, Monroe was associated with the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery. Monroe served as curator from 1974 until 1986 when he became curator-in-charge, a position he held until 1995. From 1971 to 1974, Monroe directed the Fine Arts Gallery and taught design for the State University of New York, Oneonta. In 1993, Monroe was invited by President and Mrs. Clinton to organize a collection of American craft for the White House to commemorate The Year of American Craft. After its presentation at the White House, the collection toured the United States for six years and was documented in the book The White House Collection of American Crafts. The collection was one of the first exhibitions to enjoy an international audience via the World Wide Web. Monroe has served as juror for numerous national and international competitions, delivered lectures and organized exhibitions focusing on themes and issues in contemporary American craft. Monroe received a Master of Fine Art degree in 1971 from Cranbook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and in 1967 graduated with a BS degree in art education from the University of Wisconsin. He also attended the American Academy of Art and the School of the Art Institute, both located in Chicago. Return to Top Joseph Rosa is the Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), and responsible for conceptualizing and coordinating curatorial programs in the digital realm as well as in architecture and design. He is the author of Next Generation Architecture: Folds, Blobs, and Boxes (2003), ROY/ design series 1 (SFMOMA, 2003), Folds Blobs + Boxes, Architecture in the Digital Era (the Heinz Architectural Center, 2001), Albert Frey, Architect (Princeton Architectural Press, 1999), A Constructed View: The Architectural Photography of Julius Shulman (Rizzoli, 1994; AIA International Book Award 1995), and Adolf Loos: Architecture 1903-1932 (The Monacelli Press, 1996; AIA International Book Award 1996) as well as numerous essays on American architecture and architectural photography. He is presently working on a book on twentieth century domestic architecture in California. Rosa was formerly the Curator of Architecture at the Heinz Architectural Center at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, PA and the Chief Curator of the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. He has been an adjunct lecturer at a division of the City University of New York, and adjunct assistant professor of architecture and director of the Columbia Architecture Galleries at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation in New York. In addition to these positions, Rosa has been a Visiting Scholar at The Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, a recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. Rosa received a B.A. in Architecture from the Pratt Institute and a M.S. in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. He has worked in the architectural firms of Gwathmey Siegel and Associates, Peter Eisenman, and Agrest & Gandelsonas. Return to Top Christina Yang has been the Director of Media Arts at The Kitchen, New York, since September 1999. She serves as the curator of the Kitchen Art Gallery, as producer for the TV Dinner and Digital Happy Hour series, and she works with the Executive Director on art and technology initiatives including a pilot national art and technology network. Ms. Yang's curatorial practice focuses on the commissioning, presentation, and fostering of a critical discourse about multidisciplinary works of art particularly in new forms blending performance, new media, and installation. Among others, her artist projects include the New York premier of Joan Jonas' Lines in the Sand: Helen in Egypt; Little No by Marina Zurkow (May 2004); Marie Sester's L'Architecture du Paradis; the Interactive Legends group exhibition featuring Scott Snibbe, Camille Utterback and Grahame Weinbren, the ID/entity: Portraits in the 21st Century projects with the MIT Media Lab, and Phase One of the Logic of the Birds performance by Sussan Deyhim, Shirin Neshat and their collaborators. Ms. Yang has also served as Curator at the Queens Museum of Art (QMA) from 1993-96 where she organized many one-person exhibitions of New York based artists, among other projects. She was also part of the curatorial staff at the Guggenheim Museum. She frequently serves on contemporary artist and project reviews panels for agencies including The Rockefeller Foundation (2003), and Creative Capital Foundation (2001). She has taught art history at the School of Visual Arts, California College of Arts and Craft, Hunter College, and York College. She holds a BA from UC Berkeley, a MA from Williams College and is completing her Ph.D in art history at the CUNY Graduate Center. Return to Top