Ian Berry

Dayton Director, The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery
Professor of Liberal Arts

Contact Information

Office: Tang Museum
Tel:     518-580-8080
Email: iberry@skidmore.edu

The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery's website

EDUCATION

• M.A., Curatorial Studies, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, 1998
• B.A., Art History, University of New York at Albany, 1995

RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS

• Modern and Contemporary Art
• The artist interview and original art historical research
• History and practice of museums and exhibitions
• Under-recognized artists of the 1960s – present
• Race, gender and identity in contemporary art
• Installation and modes of display

COURSES

• AH322: Inside the Museum
• AH351: Special Topics in Art History: Art Works

Ian Berry is Dayton Director of The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College. He has organized over ninety museum exhibitions including interdisciplinary exhibitions for the Tang that combine scientific equipment, Hudson River School landscapes, Rube Goldberg cartoons, and Shaker furniture with new art from around the world. In addition to surveys of recent drawing, painting, and appropriation art, Berry’s curatorial projects have included monographic exhibitions with artists such as Terry Adkins, Nayland Blake, Kathy Butterly, Nicole Eisenman, Nancy Grossman, Jim Hodges, Nina Katchadourian, Corita Kent, Martin Kersels, Nicholas Krushenick, Los Carpinteros, Shahzia Sikander, Amy Sillman, Fred Tomaselli, and Kara Walker.

Berry served as Assistant Curator at the Williams College Museum of Art before coming to Skidmore in 2000. He is a leader in the field of college of university museums and is a regular speaker on interdisciplinary and inventive curatorial practice and teaching in museums. From 2006-2012 he served as Consulting Director of the Emerson Gallery at Hamilton College and in 2009-10 was the Roy Acuff Chair of Excellence in the Creative Arts at Austin Peay University.  He has chaired the Visual Arts Panel of the New York State Council on the Arts and serves on several advisory committees including Cranbrook Academy National Advisory Committee, Artist Advisory Board of the Fabric Workshop and Museum, and Saratoga Springs Art Commission among other regional and national arts organizations.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• Someday is Now: The Art of Corita Kent, Co-editor (with Michael Duncan), Tang Museum and DelMonico-Prestel (July, 2013) Best Books of 2013 - New York Times
• Nancy Grossman: Tough Life Diary, Editor, Tang Museum and DelMonico-Prestel (November, 2012) Honorable mention, American Alliance of Museums publications award
• Amazement Park: Stan, Sara and Johannes VanDerBeek, Editor and author, Tang Museum and DelMonico-Prestel (November, 2011)
• Twice Drawn, Co-editor (with Jack Shear), Tang Museum and DelMonico-Prestel (October, 2012) Honorable mention, American Association of Museums publications award
• Tim Rollins and K.O.S.: A History, Author, MIT Press and Tang Museum (December 2009)
• Fred Tomaselli, Editor and co-author, DelMonico-Prestel, Tang Museum, and Aspen Art Museum (December 2009) First Prize, American Association of Museums publications award
• America Starts Here: Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler. Co-editor (with Bill Arning), MIT Press, Tang Museum and List Visual Arts Center (January 2006)
• Richard Pettibone: A Retrospective. Co-author (with Michael Duncan), Tang Museum and Laguna Art Museum (May 2005)
• Kara Walker: Narratives of a Negress, Co-editor, MIT Press, Tang Museum and Williams College Museum of Art (January 2003, reprinted by Rizzoli 2007) 2nd prize, American Association of Museums publications awards; AIGA, 50 catalogues/50 covers

SELECTED CONFERENCE PAPERS AND INVITED LECTURES

• Someday is Now: The Art of Corita Kent, panel discussion with Michael Duncan, Sasha Carrera, Sam Eisenstein, and Joel Garcia, Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena, CA (June 2015)
• Jewel Thieves and Score Arrangers: The Ever-Shifting Curatorial Role in Contemporary Art, Vero Beach Museum of Art Distinguished Professor lecture series, Vero Beach, FL (March 2015)
• Expanding a Shared Legacy: The Art Museum and the University, workshop presenter, Yale University Art Museum, New Haven, CT (May 2014)
• Exhibit A: Authorship on Display, panelist at symposium on contemporary exhibition practice, The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York (April 2014)
• Affinities: Art, Science, and Wonder, lecture at The Print Center, Philadelphia, PA (January 2014)
• Affinity Atlas: Art and Teaching and the Early History of Museums, Clemson University, Clemson, SC (February 2013)
• Dialogue with Nancy Grossman, An Art Book series, New York Public Library (December 2012)
• Why New Forms?, panelist at curatorial symposium, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on Hudson, New York (June, 2012)
• Annual Distinguished Artists’ Interviews with Martin Kersels, College Art Association Annual Conference, Los Angeles (February 2012)
• A Manifesto of Yes: Optimistic Practices in Art and Teaching, Re-Thinking the Museum lecture series, Arizona State University Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ (February 2011)
• The long life of the artist, Nesnadny + Schwartz Visiting Curator Lecture, MOCA Cleveland, Cleveland, OH (March 2010)
• Core Matters: Students, Faculty, Collections, a symposium for college and university art museums, speaker and workshop leader, Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA (April 2010)
• What do Exhibitions Want? Four Manifestos of Curatorial Practice, The John B. Hurford ’60 Humanities Center at Haverford College, Haverford, PA (April 2010)
• Visual Arts Workspaces and Contemporary Art Making, moderated session at conference, The New York State Artist Workspace Consortium, Museum of Modern Art, New York (October 2009)
• Risk and the University Museum, Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, PEW, Philadelphia (May 2008)
• In Conversation series with painter Amy Sillman and curator Anne Ellegood, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC (March 2008)
• A Museum of Ideas, Yaseen Lecture series, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York (April 2006)
• The College Museum, panelist, Artjournal roundtable, CAA conference, Boston, Massachusetts (February 2006)

WORK IN PROGRESS

• Monographs on artists Nicholas Krushenick, Terry Adkins and Alma Thomas