Ann Goldstein, Director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
To Receive 2012 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence from The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College
First Year Award Given With New Audrey Irmas Prize of 25,000 USD
Award Presented at Gala Celebration on April 4, 2012 at Capitale in New York City
The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard) has announced that the Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence will be presented to Ann Goldstein, Director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, at a gala celebration and dinner on April 4, 2012 at Capitale in New York City.
Ann Goldstein’s curatorial career spans nearly 30 years, including 26 years at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. In 2009, she was appointed Director of the Stedelijk Museum, which includes overseeing the museum’s reopening and reinstallations in 2012. Through this challenging task, Goldstein and her colleagues will help bring one of the world’s great contemporary art institutions into the 21st century.
Noted for her expertise in the fields of Minimal and Conceptual art of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as current practices, Goldstein has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to individual artists as well as argument-driven curatorial projects presenting some of the most significant group exhibitions of our time, including: A Forest of Signs: Art in the Crisis of Representation (1989, co-curated with Mary Jane Jacob); 1965–1975: Reconsidering the Object of Art (1995, co-curated with Anne Rorimer); and A Minimal Future? Art as Object 1958–1968 (2004). Goldstein’s work represents the very best of curatorial vision and dedication, and CCS Bard is proud to name her as the recipient of the fifteenth CCS Bard Award for Curatorial Excellence, and the first given with the new Audrey Irmas Prize of 25,000 USD.
The award gala comes during a momentous year for CCS Bard, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2012. Icelandic artist and musician, Ragnar Kjartansson, will present a special performance during the event. Kjartansson’s first U.S. solo show was presented at CCS Bard, curated by CCS alum Markús Andrésson. This year’s award has been designed by Lawrence Weiner.
About CCS Bard’s Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence
For fifteen years, the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College has celebrated and awarded the individual achievements of a leading curator or curators whose lasting contributions have shaped the way we conceive of exhibition-making today. For the first time, the 2012 award will be given under the name of patron Audrey Irmas, who has bestowed the endowment for the Award.
The awardee is selected by an independent panel of leading contemporary art curators, museum directors, and artists. Past recipients include Harald Szeemann, Marcia Tucker, Kasper König, Paul Schimmel, Susanne Ghez, Kynaston McShine, Walter Hopps, Kathy Halbreich and Mari Carmen Ramírez, Lynne Cooke and Vasif Kortun, Alanna Heiss, Catherine David, Okwui Enwezor, Lucy Lippard, Helen Molesworth, and Hans Ulrich Obrist. The award reflects CCS Bard’s commitment to recognizing individuals who have defined new thinking, bold vision, and dedicated service to the field of exhibition practice.
Ann Goldstein is the Director of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, a position she has held since 2010. Her first exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum, Taking Place (2010), featured works by artists including Stanley Brouwn, Daniel Buren, Jan Dibbets, Rineke Dijkstra, Morgan Fisher, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, William Leavitt, Willem de Rooij, Diana Thater, Ger van Elk, and Lawrence Weiner. The exhibition reintroduced the Stedelijk Museum’s historic building by presenting newly commissioned site-specific works, historical reconstructions, video projections, audio work, architectural interventions, performances and graphic design works.
With the Stedelijk Museum currently closed for the completion of a construction project and grand reopening in 2012, Ms. Goldstein is continuing Temporary Stedelijk program in its newest form, Temporary Stedelijk 3: Stedelijk @ (TS3), which will feature performances, lectures, public interviews, discussions, symposia, film screenings, music, and book presentations, as well as educational initiatives in venues throughout Amsterdam. The Stedelijk Museum will reopen in 2012 with a reinstallation of the museum’s renowned collections of modern and contemporary art and design, and the premiere of a retrospective exhibition of the work of Mike Kelley, guest curated by Dr. Eva Meyer-Hermann.
Before assuming her post at the Stedelijk Museum in 2010, Goldstein worked at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) for 26 years, holding the position of Senior Curator, among other roles. Her projects at MOCA included large-scale historical survey exhibitions as well as retrospectives and solo exhibitions of William Leavitt (2011, co-curated with Bennett Simpson); Michael Kippenberger (2008); Lawrence Weiner (2007, co-organized with the Whitney Museum of American Art and co-curated with Donna De Salvo); Barbara Kruger (1999); Christopher Wool (1998); Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1994, co-organized with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,and the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago and co-curated with Susanne Ghez and Amada Cruz); and Roni Horn (1990), among others.
Audrey Irmas is a board member for the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and an active member of the Los Angeles arts and philanthropic community. Since 1994, she has served at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, holding various positions during that time including chairman of The Acquisitions Committee, president of the Board of Trustees, chairman of the Board of Trustees, co-chair of the capital campaign committee, and head of development. She became a lifetime trustee in 2006.
In 1991 Audrey and her late husband, Sydney Irmas, became very interested in solving the homeless problem in Los Angeles County. They have since become integral members of L.A. Family Housing Project (LAFH) and both have served as chairman at different times. LAFH provides housing for homeless families and singles for all of Los Angeles County and Skid Row. Audrey and Sydney were also founders in establishing the Public Interest Law Fund (PILF) at USC Law School, which provides funds for law students to provide legal assistance to the needy.
About the Center for Curatorial Studies
The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard) is an exhibition, education, and research center dedicated to the study of art and curatorial practices from the 1960s to the present day.
In addition to the CCS Bard Galleries and Hessel Museum of Art, the Center houses the Marieluise Hessel Collection, as well as an extensive library and curatorial archives that are accessible to the public. The Center’s two-year M.A. program in curatorial studies is specifically designed to deepen students’ understanding of the intellectual and practical tasks of curating contemporary art. Exhibitions are presented year-round in the CCS Bard Galleries and Hessel Museum of Art, providing students with the opportunity to work with world-renowned artists and curators. The exhibition program and the Hessel Collection also serve as the basis for a wide range of public programs and activities exploring art and its role in contemporary society.
Founded in 1990, the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College opened its doors in 1992. Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2012, CCS Bard will present a series of exhibitions by students as well as a roster of international artists working in a range of practices.
General information on the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College can be found on its newly relaunched website at: www.bard.edu/ccs.
For more information, or to purchase tickets, please contact Ramona Rosenberg at 845.758.7574 or rrosenberg@bard.edu.
Center for Curatorial Studies and
Hessel Museum of Art
Bard College, PO Box 5000
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000
845-758-7598
ccs [at] bard.edu
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Elizabeth Reina-Longoria or Deirdre Maher
Blue Medium
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BARD COLLEGE CONTACT:
Mark Primoff, Director of Communications
Tel: +1 845.758.7412
Email: primoff [at] bard.edu
CCS BARD CONTACT:
Ramona Rosenberg, External Affairs Manager
Tel: +1 (845) 758-7574
Email: rrosenberg [at] bard.edu
