Beaverbrook Art Gallery Announces 2016 Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation Critic Residency
Fredericton, NB, October 18, 2016 — The Beaverbrook Art Gallery has announced that Stephanie Buhmann will be the 2016 Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation Critic-in-Residence at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. This program, now in its second year, furthers the Gallery’s commitment to an engaging program of bringing people and art together in dialogue in a variety of ways, including through exhibitions as well as lectures, workshops, and art instruction programs.
Buhmann’s residency will take place November 9 – 15, and will include several studio visits with artists, a public panel discussion, and an art writing workshop. Following this residency, an article reflecting on these studio visits will be included in BILLIE: Undercurrents in Atlantic Canadian Visual Culture, a visual arts journal published by the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. Buhmann’s residency follows the inaugural instalment in 2015 with American critic and award-winning freelance journalist, Edgar Allen Beem.
Critic-in-Residence, Stephanie Buhmann.
This is the second year for this initiative, which was borne out of recognition of the importance of visual arts criticism and journalism in the development and appreciation of contemporary art. According to Beaverbrook Art Gallery Director/CEO and Chief Curator Terry Graff, “This initiative, which is generously funded by a grant from the Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation, is aimed at nurturing a regional, national and international exchange of critical thinking about contemporary art in New Brunswick.
“The Critic-in-Residence series is an important element in the critical discourse about the New Brunswick art scene,” says Kathryn McCarroll, Executive Director of the Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation. “Building on the 2015 inaugural residency, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery’s invitation to the international critic Stephanie Buhmann promises a continuation of insightful creative exchange. The Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation salutes the work of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in the creation of this residency.”
Buhmann was born in Hamburg, Germany. She received a B.F.A. and M.F.A. in the History of Art, Architecture and Design from Pratt Institute, New York, with Honors (2002). She is a member of the Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art, the Deutscher Fachjournalisten-Verband and the College Art Association. She is a contributing editor at Artcritical, and her essays and art reviews have been published by a variety of international galleries, newspapers, and art magazines. She has additionally curated a number of solo and group exhibitions in New York and Germany, has translated several museum catalogue essays, and is director of the Jason McCoy Gallery.
Her book New York Studio Conversations: Seventeen Women Talk About Art (The Green Box, Berlin), a compilation of studio interviews with artists based in New York, was published in April 2016. Looking for an approach beyond the mainstream media coverage of the art market, she visited the artists in their studios and gained insights into their individual artistic practices and creative approaches, as the artists openly shared their philosophy, sources of inspiration, and personal stories.
On Saturday, November 12, Buhmann will lead a free, two-hour workshop from 10 am to 12 noon entitled: How to Write about Art, Formulate your Artist Statement or Art Review. During this workshop, Buhmann will present examples of her own writing as well as the writing of other artists and critics and will engage participants in writing their own short reviews of art or artist statements. Limited spaces are available for this workshop, so interested parties are encouraged to register early.
Later that day, Buhmann will moderate a panel discussion with artists entitled In Conversation: Art in New Brunswick, which will start at 3 pm. This discussion will be inspired by her journey through the New Brunswick ‘artscape,’ her studio visits with local artists, and the influence the Gallery’s collection has on contemporary art. This panel discussion is also free and open to all members of the public. Refreshments will be served.
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About the Beaverbrook Art Gallery
The Beaverbrook Art Gallery was founded by Lord Beaverbrook on September 16, 1959. The Gallery is internationally known for its collection of Atlantic Canadian, Canadian, British, and International works of art. The Beaverbrook Art Gallery “enriches life through art”. As the official art gallery of New Brunswick, and one of Canada’s leading art galleries and most important cultural treasures, its mission is to “bring art and community together in a dynamic cultural environment dedicated to the highest standards in acquisitions, exhibitions, programming, education and stewardship.”
The Beaverbrook Art Gallery enriches life through art.
La Galerie d’art Beaverbrook enrichit la vie par l’art.
Media Contact
Jeremy Elder-Jubelin
Manager of Communications and Visitor Services
Beaverbrook Art Gallery
703 Queen Street, P.O. Box 605
Fredericton, NB E3E 5A6
Phone: (506) 458-2039
Email: visitorservices@beaverbrookartgallery.org
Fax: (506) 458-2028
www.beaverbrookartgallery.org