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SITE SANTA FE NAMES
CHARLES A. STAINBACK
AS NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Santa Fe, NM -- SITE Santa Fe announced today the appointment of Charles A.
Stainback as its new executive director. Stainback is the Dayton Director
of the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery and Professor of
Liberal Studies at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. Stainback
succeeds Louis Grachos, who was named director of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery
in Buffalo, New York, in January 2003, and who led SITE Santa Fe to national
and international prominence. Stainback's appointment by the Board of Directors
of SITE Santa Fe is effective on September 1, 2003. The appointment was announced
today by Bobbie Foshay-Miller, President of SITE Santa Fe's Board of Directors.
"The Board of Directors is very pleased that Charlie Stainback will be the
next executive director of SITE Santa Fe," Foshay-Miller said in her announcement.
"Charlie's many years of experience as a museum director and curator make
him the perfect choice to lead SITE Santa Fe at this stage in its growth.
Everyone will enjoy his team spirit, his great sense of humor, and his ingratiating
manner. We look forward to working with Charlie to maintain SITE Santa Fe's
extraordinary programs and to implement the many new exciting ideas he suggests."
"To say I was thrilled to be chosen as SITE Santa Fe's next director is an
understatement. I am honored to be able to take on the challenge of this important
institution and hope I can build upon the rich history that has made SITE
one of this country's premier spaces for contemporary art," Stainback said.
Stainback joined Skidmore in 1997, and during his tenure he oversaw the conception,
design, and construction of a new interdisciplinary arts facility -- The Frances
Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery. The Tang, which opened in October
2000, was designed by the renowned Albuquerque-based architect Antoine Predock.
For the opening of the Tang Museum, Stainback curated S.O.S.: Scenes of
Sounds, a multimedia, interdisciplinary exhibition that included everything
from a Chatty Cathy doll to the 25 sounds patented by the U.S. Patent Office
to artworks by a wide range of artists including Andy Warhol, Bruce Nauman,
Rebecca Horn, Ann Hamilton, and Martin Kersels. Since its opening, the Tang
has risen to national attention for its innovative programs and stunningly
beautiful publications. Over the past two and a half years, the Tang has shown
the work of over 200 contemporary artists and mounted exhibitions that have
ranged from Paradise Now: Picturing the Genetic Revolution to Kara Walker:
Narratives of a Negress.
Recently, Stainback curated the first U.S. presentation of the Sonnabend Collection
-- From Pop to Now: Selections from the Sonnabend Collection -- which
was shown at the Tang as well as the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus,
Ohio. As Holland Cotter noted in his review of the exhibition for The New
York Times, "Under Mr. Stainback [the Tang] has a lively, forward-looking
exhibition program.... At the same time... it has its eye on history and how
that works. In such an environment, the Sonnabend collection is right at home."
Previously, Stainback was the director of exhibitions for the International
Center of Photography in New York City. He has also served as the founding
director of the Burden Gallery, Aperture Foundation, New York, NY; and assistant
director of The Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond,
VA. Stainback holds a B.F.A from the Kansas City Art Institute, and a M.F.A
from the State University of New York at Buffalo/Visual Studies Workshop.
Stainback has been involved in the arts as a practitioner, educator, and curator
for more than two decades. Over the last 10 years, he has published several
books and curated numerous exhibitions on some of the most challenging and
important work by contemporary artists including Vik Muniz: Seeing is Believing
(1998), David Levinthal: Works from 1975-1996 (1997), Special Collections:
The Photographic Order from Pop to Now (1993-1994), Jeff Wolin: Written
on Memory (1991), The Anonymous Other: Photographic Installations by
Christian Boltanski, Barbara Bloom and Alfredo Jaar (1991), Bruce Charlesworth:
Private Enemy/Public Eye (1988), and Portrayals (1987). In 1995
he co-curated Along the Frontier: Video Installations by Ann Hamilton,
Bruce Nauman, Francesc Torres and Bill Viola, a special exhibition that
toured Russia and Eastern Europe. Among Stainback's current projects are a
mid-career survey of the German photographer Elger Esser (one of the last
students of famed photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher), and a soon-to-be-announced
exhibition that will bring together some of America's most compelling creative
individuals with hidden treasures from the Barnes Foundation.
Stainback's wife, Kitty Bowe Hearty, a writer and special project publicist
for independent films, will be joining him in Santa Fe. They both will be
on hand for AUCTION SITE, SITE Santa Fe's 2003 Summer Benefit Auction, to
be held on Saturday, July 12, and they will relocate to Santa Fe by September
2003.
SITE Santa Fe As the premier contemporary arts venue in the Southwest, SITE
Santa Fe is an important resource for local and global arts audiences alike.
Its international biennial exhibitions are attended by enthusiastic crowds
from all over the world, while the year-round exhibitions, public programming
events, and education and outreach activities make outstanding contributions
to Santa Fe's thriving arts scene. The Fifth International Biennial, scheduled
for the summer of 2004, will be curated by prominent American curator Robert
Storr, formerly of the Museum of Modern Art. Storr's appointment as the next
biennial curator will continue to guarantee SITE Santa Fe's status as a top-flight,
world-class contemporary art institution.
Contact: Press Office
Tel: 505.989.1199
Fax:505.989.1188
email: press@sitesantafe.org
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