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Mission

*Image courtesy of Karen Crews Hendon, Arthur Ganson, Machine with Abandoned Doll, from exhibition Humana Ex Machina.

OFFERING TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCES THAT IMPACT COMMUNITY THROUGH ART AND CULTURE

Experience Development is a holistic approach to:

Support—ideas and imagination
Expand—community partnerships  
Increase—public interest and participation

Empower—diversity and global connection

Create—interdisciplinary programs

Build—bridges through exhibitions

Strengthen—collections and their relevance in the community

Explore—artistic and social fusion beyond borders

Advance—cultural flexibility and cross-cultural influences  

Listen—to children

Guide—inclusive and transparent communication

Share—leadership embodiment

Promote—creative learning and connection with artists 

Form—sustainable relationships

Cultivate—financial support for artistic projects

Respond—to civic, social, educational, and cultural needs

Mentor—staff and students

Nurture—Slow Art life principals

Energize—body, mind, soul, spirit

Design-by-Impact Exhibition

and Educational Engagement

To successfully create transformative learning experiences through art, I team with curators, educators, exhibition designers, visitor experience, and marketing professionals in order to develop reliable, high-functioning groups to build environments designed with an audience-first approach.

 

Initiating project-focused teams using various staff members instead of the traditionally top-down senior staff structures provides an internal method that establishes non-hierarchical partnerships, camaraderie, diverse perspectives, and creative strengths in tandem with the qualities necessary to cater to each project. This design-by-impact strategy allows for multiple solutions to be tested and solid packages to be presented that promote multi-disciplinary themes for educational outreach and public engagement. This also provides built-in structures to collect baseline and advanced metrics to reveal how people experience and connect with art in meaningful ways.  

Experimental Environments

Creating experimental gallery spaces invites artists and visitors to connect and participate together, which help guide the creative processes that allow museums more opportunities to evolve and be cognitive places—keeping them relevant and grounded to the needs of their community.

 

Staying neutral and open to multiple outcomes is important for growth and invites an inclusive and organic evolution that only strengthens the dialogue and relationship between the community and the institution—community impact being the greatest asset.

Team Building and Communication

Collaboration is like the orchestration of a symphonic work; each player has a significant part that contributes to a greater whole. To achieve harmony and movement, all need to be individually in tune, well practiced, and in key to connect, resonate, and respond to one another to create dynamic music. Recognizing and valuing individual jobs and collective responsibilities from start to finish builds trust, inclusivity, skillful listening, mutual respect, transparency, and supportive leadership embodiment practices* to successfully expand and celebrate the arts.

*Leadership Embodiment, Wendy Palmer http://www.embodimentinternational.com

 


Collection Cultivation

and Art Acquisition

Collections are the history of a region and the story of each institution. They represent the identity and cultural imprint of the city. Most importantly, they can be used for community benefit to create new stories and long life learning and engagement.

 

Many people collect art but often they need guidance to keep the integrity of their holdings after they are gone. They are caretakers of works of art that will continue to make lifetimes of new connections. Many institutions have more art than they can handle and de-acquisition is often not favorable.  

 

Whether evaluating institutional collections or pursuing permanent homes for independent collectors, I assess collection strengths and weaknesses, produce analysis reports, identify collecting criteria in tandem with mission goals, initiate appraisals, guide policy, and generate curated “  wish lists”   to bring direction and cohesiveness to the collection. Similarly for independent collectors, I act as the curatorial advisor and communication liaison between collectors and institutions, submit proposals, and place collections to appropriate museums that meet the priorities of both the collector and the institution.

*Image courtesy of Karen Crews Hendon

*Image courtesy of Karen Crews Hendon, August Rodin: Light and Shadow, Monterey Museum of Art

*Image courtesy of Karen Crews Hendon, Nestation, Long Beach:   Exposed

*Image courtesy of Karen Crews Hendon, In Process: Andrew      Schoultz, Monterey Museum of Art

*Image courtesy of Karen Crews Hendon, Monterey Museum of Art

*Image courtesy of Karen Crews Hendon, CSU Summer Arts           Faculty Colloquium Storytelling workshop with Moth Story Slam       artist David Crabb, Monterey Museum of Art.

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