Ian Berry honored with 2009-10 Acuff Chair of Excellence

Tang Museum curator Ian Berry has been awarded a year-long appointment to the Roy Acuff Chair of Excellence in the Creative Arts at Austin Peay University in Clarksville, Tenn. Established in 1984 and housed at the university's Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts, the Acuff Chair is an endowed professorship that brings regionally and nationally acclaimed artists together with students, faculty, and community people in an atmosphere of unrestricted experimentation.

Berry, who is the Tang's associate director for curatorial affairs and its Susan Rabinowitz Malloy '45 Curator, will travel to the Tennessee university several times during spring 2010, while continuing to oversee progress on upcoming Tang exhibitions. At Austin Peay, Berry will conduct a spring seminar tracing the history of experimental curatorial practice and focusing on interactions with new work and living artists.  His students' projects will be included in the final exhibition.  Berry also expects to interact with students from nearby Vanderbilt University, where he will speak in early October.

"The Acuff Chair is a clear signal of how highly Ian is regarded in the field?which is very highly indeed," said Tang director John Weber. "And this honor is a welcome sign of how Ian's work for the Tang Museum has identified Skidmore as a locus of national-caliber curatorial work and museum practice."

Appointment to the Acuff Chair each year rotates among distinguished practitioners of theater and dance, creative writing, art, and music. "This year it was the Art Department's turn and I am the first curator they have invited," Berry explains.  "One of my duties will be to teach a spring seminar, which will involve making an exhibition for the  university's gallery and organizing an accompanying public lecture series with guest artists." Adds Berry, "I am thrilled to join such fantastic former Acuff Chair recipients as painter Jim Nutt,  novelist Louise Erdrich, poet Carolyn Forch , the Second City Touring Company, and the vocal ensemble Cantus.  It's an eclectic  and distinguished list."

Among the many exhibitions Berry has organized for the Tang Museum are  Work: Shaker Design and Recent Art (2001),  Living with Duchamp (2003), and Richard  Pettibone: A Retrospective (2006), in addition to genre surveys of contemporary painting, sculpture, and drawing. He has collaborated with several Skidmore faculty members on large-scale interdisciplinary projects including Lives of the Hudson currently on view at the Tang. Berry also organizes the Tang's Opener series that  brings important artists to campus such as Nayland Blake, Shahzia Sikander, Martin Kersels, Nina Katchadourian, Amy Sillman, Jim Hodges, and Joseph Grigely, among others.  Recent publications include Kara Wallker: Narratives of A Negress (MIT Press, 2003; Rizzoli, 2008), America Starts Here: Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler (MIT Press, 2006) and Dario Robleto: Alloy of Love (University of Washington Press, 2008).  Forthcoming books include Tim Rollins and K.O.S.: A History (MIT Press, 2009) and Fred Tomaselli (Prestel, 2009).