A Cultural Vision
[Photos | Courtesy of the New
Korean-born Min Jung Kim said she likes to “flip the gaze” by sometimes looking at American art through the world’s perspective. In three years at the NBMAA, she has helped it to change and grow, while bringing along many of its dedicated supporters and continuing to expand its circle of friends, family, and patrons.
Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall is a mural created on the Lewitt Family Wall by contemporary Detroit-based artist Louise Jones to introduce the recent Georgia O’Keeffe exhibition at the NBMAA. Kim commissioned her to do the artwork because she is known for magnifying the scale of flowers, as did O’Keeffe.
The recent Georgia O’Keeffe exhibition opened in March, but some pieces are still on view at the NBMAA, in addition to others that have been transferred to the gallery space at the Delamar Hotel in West Hartford.
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Director Min Jung Kim arrived at the New Britain Museum of American Art just as it had expanded its gallery and art education space by 17,000 square feet. Along with her considerable energy, she brought a contemporary vision of American art that is expansive and inclusive.
“Change, evolution, and progress has always been part of the DNA of this institution,” she said. Originally part of the New Britain Institute, along with the public library and the New Britain Industrial Museum, its mission was to help immigrants working in factories learn about the country.
In a little more than three years at its helm, Kim has exploded the definition of American art and made it more relevant to modern immigrants by celebrating the artistic gifts they continue to contribute.
“The first exhibition I brought in was Vistas del Sur,” she said. The bilingual exhibit featured paintings, photographs, and other artworks tracing the evolution of Latin American landscapes by artists from Europe and the Americas.
“Along the way, we engaged in conversations with individuals and communities that reflect the rich and complex cultural heritage of America,” said Kim. She also engaged with Hispanic communities prior to the latest New/Now emerging artist exhibit, featuring Pablo Helguera, who immigrated from Mexico at 16.
She is a master at making connections. When Chilean/Argentinian immigrant Francisca Benitez, whose interest in deaf culture inspired her exhibition – an exploration of sign languages in several media – Kim timed it to run concurrently with the bicentennial of the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford.
For the recent Georgia O’Keeffe exhibition, she found contemporary Detroit-based artist Louise Jones to do a mural for the LeWitt Family Staircase. “Her work, like Georgia O’Keeffe’s, magnifies the scale of flowers, and we partnered her with a number of local horticulturists so she would know what is indigenous to Connecticut,” Kim explained.
As the bulk of the O’Keeffe exhibit came down, Kim prolonged its value by transferring some of the pieces to the gallery of one of her other connections – the Delamar West Hartford hotel. “I believe very strongly in partnerships and capitalizing on the incredible cultural resources that exist in our area,” she said.
Looking forward, Kim said she hopes to continue showing the diversity that exists within American art, by infusing traditional exhibits with episodic presentations from Latinos, Africans, Arabs and others who have elected to make this country their home.
Visit www.nbmaa.org for more information.
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