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Kristen Hileman, Curator

“The Shimmering Museum”

Monday, September 9th, Noon – 1:00 PM
Location: PAHB 216, Dresher Center Conference Room
Free: catered event


Reflecting on two decades of curatorial experience presenting exhibitions and permanent collections in museums, Hileman will discuss the current state of the museum field, considering the influence of commercial interests and power structures on programming decisions alongside challenges in securing next generations of patrons. Her talk will also address ways forward for increasing the social, political, and affective resonance of museums, as well as non-museum paths for artists whose aim is to develop a dialogue between their work and the public.

Kristen Hileman is an Independent Curator based in Baltimore. She served as Head of The Baltimore Museum of Art’s Department of Contemporary Art from 2009 through 2019, where she oversaw the reinstallation of the museum’s renovated contemporary wing in 2012, initiated numerous acquisitions to diversify the collection, and presented exhibitions featuring an array of artists, among them the Guerrilla Girls, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley, Sarah Oppenheimer, Dario Robleto, Anri Sala, and Tomas Saraceno. Her most recent BMA projects included Meleko Mokgosi: Acts of Resistance, Lizzie Fitch / Ryan Trecartin, DIS: A Good Crisis and John Waters: Indecent Exposure, a large-scale retrospective of that influential cultural figure’s visual arts career. Throughout her time at the BMA, Hileman foreground artists with ties to Baltimore including Seth Adelsberger, Maren Hassinger, Sharon Hayes, Jimmy Joe Roche, Sterling Ruby, and Sara VanDerBeek. Jo Smail: Flying with Remnant Wing, her survey of the career of the distinguished painter and Maryland Institute College of Art professor, will open at the BMA in spring 2020.


From 2001 through 2009, Hileman worked at the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., where she organized the first full career retrospective of Anne Truitt, bringing new attention to the important DC-based abstractionist. At the Hirshhorn, Hileman also co-curated the international film and video exhibition The Cinema Effect: Realisms and led projects featuring John Baldessari, Cai Guo-Qiang, Cyprien Gaillard, Mario Garcia Torres, Oliver Herring, Jim Hodges, and Wolfgang Tillmans. She has taught at Johns Hopkins University, George Washington University, and the Corcoran College of Art and Design and is a frequent visiting critic and lecturer at colleges and universities.
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Posted: August 28, 2019, 3:46 PM

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