Courtesy of Brad Feinknopf
THANKS TO THE Greater Columbus Arts Council, everyone in central Ohio knows “Columbus Makes Art.” But how exactly is that art chosen for the Columbus Museum of Art?
Tyler Cann, director of exhibitions and Pizzuti family curator of contemporary art for the Columbus Museum of Art, knows exactly what it takes to curate public art. It is, after all, his job.
"As a public art museum, we’re always thinking about how the work we show will speak to broad audiences,” he says. “It is a matter of trying to present works in a way that feels relevant and meaningful to us, as well as to the broad range of people who might be coming through the doors or just walking past the museum.”
For those walking past the museum, Karnak by Paul Feeley, a set of nine 20-foot-tall painted aluminum squiggles, has tended to catch the eye.
“As you move around that work, it changes a lot,” Cann says. “It’s really dynamic, almost kinetic, and it’s always gratifying to see people inside that work walking around or playing hide and seek. For us, it really provides a kind of welcoming and fun experience right at the entrance to the museum.”
Much of the artwork included in CMA’s exhibits is from the museum’s own collection, which often helps inspire and inform the curatorial process for arranging new exhibitions.
“There are certain themes that emerge within (the collection),” Cann says, “and so it’s a matter of, in a way, grouping works together. I always call it a conversation between works, that is really important to me. It’s sort of like what one work says when it’s next to something else, and what story can we tell about that relationship.”
Two of the current exhibitions at the museum were curated in collaboration with The Ohio State University’s department of art history, bringing students and professors behind the scenes.
A Primer on the Commons shows works in large part from CMA’s collection, with added works from both local and national artists. The exhibition focuses on the idea of the commons, public spaces and how modern-day society interacts with them.
“It’s a really exciting exhibition that thinks rather broadly about some of the issues that we are facing in contemporary life right now, the upheavals of the moment,” Cann says.
When one is curating an exhibit such as A Primer on the Commons, thought goes into every detail, from, selecting art and artists to the arrangement of pieces in the room to the detailed descriptions accompanying each piece to provide context for the artwork.
“It’s one thing to put some stuff in a room,” Cann says, “but it’s another to tell the story about why it’s in that room.”
Art history students worked diligently to determine many of those details, so the curatorial process was truly a collaboration.
“It’s wonderful to be engaging with and working with a group of students in the process of making an exhibition,” Cann says. “There are some artists that the students brought to the table as somebody that they would like to work with, so they were definitely quite involved.”
The second collaborative exhibition on view at CMA, Partially Buried: Land-Based Art in Ohio, 1970 to Now, was curated by Anna Talarico, an OSU master’s student studying contemporary art and curatorial practices.
“It was great to work with an emerging museum professional,” Cann says, “working both with works in our collection as well as other works that we’ve borrowed both from the Wexner Center for the Arts and from artists.”
Cann recently worked on curating an installation in the museum’s café, Our Favorite Things, which showcases a wide variety of small sculptures, ceramic creations, wood carvings and more selected from the museum’s archives.
“Normally, it’s curators who choose that, but in this case – and I did choose many of the works – I also solicited input on this from some folks across the institution,” Cann says. “We were able to involve the lady who works at the front desk, or somebody in our facilities crew, or the folks whose job it is to put the art on the wall.”
In all the museum does, collaboration is at the heart of its work.
“We really strive to be a welcoming place for people to come and reflect on the works,” says Cann, “and their experience of it.”
Sarah Robinson is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at srobinson@cityscenemediagroup.com
