New Ham curator shares vision, plans for contemporary art collection.

Jade Powers on April 1 will become the newest curator of contemporary art at the Harn Museum Art at the University of Florida.

“We are so excited to welcome Powers into the curatorial department and look forward to collaborating with her on acquisitions of global contemporary art as well as fostering her creative ideas in developing new exhibitions at the Harn,” said Dulce Román, the museum’s chief curator and curator of modern art via email.

Powers will lead the development and interpretation of the Harn’s contemporary collection, located in the 6,500-square-foot gallery within the Mary Ann Harn Cofrin Pavilion and adjacent Bob and Nancy Magoon Garden on the UF campus. The contemporary collection includes more than 2,000 objects of international art from major contemporary art movements by established and emerging artists from around the world.

Powers was the unanimous choice of the hiring committee, which included several members of the Harn staff as well as faculty from “our partner colleges at UF,” said Lee Anne Chesterfield, the museum’s art director.

Chesterfield said there were three excellent candidates on the short list.

“In the end it was clear that Jade Powers was everyone’s top choice for the Harn. Her vision for the Harn’s contemporary collection of art clearly fits with the Harn’s current strategic plan as well as our values ​​and mission as the University of Florida and City of Gainesville’s art museum,” Chesterfield wrote via email.

The Harn has had Black guest curators in the past who were not directly employed by the Harn. Most recently they have included Kimberly Williams, a UF graduate student majoring in English, and Porchia Moore, an assistant professor of museum studies at UF who co-curated along with Carol McCuskor, the museum’s curator of photography, the current exhibition “Shadow to Substance ”Exhibit that will be on display through Sunday.

“It has also been the practice of Harn curators and educators to bring together advisory groups for exhibitions in order to obtain a diverse perspective on the presentation of the art,” Chesterfield said. “We ask members of the Gainesville community as well as the faculty and students of UF and Santa Fe to advise us on our exhibitions.”

Powers joins the Harn from the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri, where she curated more than 10 permanent collection and special exhibitions since being appointed as assistant curator in 2018. Exhibition highlights include Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives (2021) , Well-Read: Artists Inspired by Literature (2021), Dawoud Bey: Selections from Night Coming Tenderly, Black (2020), and Deconstructing Marcus Jansen (2018). In her role, Powers implemented acquisitions of contemporary art, co-authored and managed the Dyani White Hawk exhibition catalogue, and was instrumental in the launch of the Kemper’s new “Young Friends” collector group, according to www.artfixdaily.com.

All positions at the Harn are funded by the state of Florida, UF, as well as private funding such as endowments in some cases, Chesterfield said, adding that Powers will be a state employee.

Powers holds a master of arts degree in religious studies from Indiana University at Bloomington Indiana, with a focus on contemporary Asian art and culture.

At the Saint Louis Art Museum, Powers created the first museum side gallery to comprehensively highlight works of art by artists of African descent, and implemented public programs that included creating a teacher workshop to help educators add information about African American artists to their curriculum. The Saint Louis Art Museum. is a world-renowned fine arts museum in St. Louis, Missouri.

Powers responded to questions from The Guardian via email.

When asked what inspired her to come to the Harn Museum, Powers said she was inspired by the museum’s collection of over 2,000 objects by national and international artists as well as the outdoor sculptures; the history of the museum and the new strategic plan to provide art-focused opportunities for the greater Gainesville area and UF students across different fields of study.

Powers said her short-term plans for the Contemporary Art Collection include organizing permanent collection exhibitions that highlight artists in the collection; thinking about showing works that haven’t been on view in a while and putting works that have never been in conversation with each other together. Powers said she is excited to work with the curatorial team and professors at UF to highlight important contemporary issues

Powers said her long term plans are to work with colleagues around the globe to organize and host exhibitions that are important to the missions of both the Harn and UF. She said organizing shows that focus on experiences of Floridians that will travel to other museums allows important national conversations and exhibitions with a global focus will allow Gainesville communities and beyond to engage with international contemporary works and artists.

Powers discussed her ideas to develop new exhibitions and public programs:

“I am looking forward to moving to Gainesville and learning more about the interests of the communities there.” Powers wrote via email. “I always have ideas for new exhibitions and public programs but it is important to me to understand the area and see what might excite the visitors. Overall, I am excited to develop exhibitions that showcase narratives silenced throughout history and to work with the curatorial team and professors across the university and area to engage in programs that will bring important topics to life in a visual way.”.

When asked for her ideas to highlight Black artists, Powers said the Harn’s collection is a showcase of diverse artists and she looks forward to highlighting Black artists in the permanent collection through exhibitions and loans that foster visual connections between these artists and others within the collection.

Powers said it is important to not only highlight Black experiences in the African continent and diaspora but to also engage these voices in other areas of the museum, placing artwork by Black artists in exhibition spaces with artwork by non-Black artists, allowing for a well -rounded exploration of different topics.

“I also look forward to expanding the collection of Black artists and acquiring works that add to the diverse and expansive Black experiences including non-figurative representation by artists of African descent,” Powers wrote via email..

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