February 16, 2010

RAM appoints new curator of exhibitions

The Racine Art Museum has appointed Lena Vigna as its new Curator of Exhibitions. Vigna comes to the museum from the Miami University Art Museum in Oxford, Ohio, and will start here on March 1.

With previous roots in Wisconsin, Vigna served as the Curator of Exhibitions and Department Head at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin from 2001 to 2008. Her last major show at the Kohler, Laced with History in 2007, was a contemporary look at lace, lace making and the concept of lace as inspiration for artworks and installation sculptures.

Most recently, she has garnered recognition for her attention to contemporary art jewelry. In 2009, she co-authored an article in Metalsmith magazine on the new sense of ornamentation practiced by some of the artists working in contemporary art jewelry.

Vigna has her BFA and MA degrees in Art History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She worked at the University of Illinois' Krannert Art Museum and the Indianapolis Museum of Art prior to moving to Wisconsin in 2001. She moved to the Miami University Art Museum in 2008.

"Lena Vigna is viewed by many people in the field as an up and coming talent and we look forward to having her on our staff," said Bruce W. Pepich, RAM Executive Director and Curator of Collections. "She has exciting ideas and a strong interest in supporting artists and their development of new work."

The Racine Art Museum has nearly 5,000 contemporary crafts objects in its permanent collection. Vigna will head a department that organizes exhibitions three times a year at RAM and Wustum Museum of Fine Arts.

25 comments:

  1. Here's hoping that Lena Vigna will show some interest in the work of local artists. Regardless, the best of luck to her--she'll need it to survive and thrive in Racine!

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  2. We've got double-digit unemployment and high school drop out rates. Never mind, though--the House of Wax knows what Racine needs: a new curator of exhibitions at a tax-shelter-cum-museum.

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  3. 2:27 - That's right. Isn't great - don't go down there however, we don't like rubbing albows with low life like you.

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  4. One word tells the story: OHIO. We all know which corporate clan dotes on and promotes talent from that state. However, the lady has some Wisconsin roots, so let's welcome her to our community.

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  5. Dear 2:32 PM, High life with loot-laden low-life isn't our thing. Don't worry--you won't have to rub elbows with us. Do be decent to the lady, however. It's not her fault that a certain clan founded and funded her place of employment.

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  6. Thank goodness - you low lifes have a way of ruining everything.

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  7. Wow, someone hired in Racine with REAL degrees from a REAL university! Welcome Lena !!!!

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  8. We have plenty of residents with genuine degrees from accredited institutions of higher learning, including universities. However, since the people in question are neither Ivy Leaguers nor former employees of OHIO institutions, their opportunities here are non-existent. (The OHIO-obsessed House of Wax--which also worships at the shrines of Corny-Hell and Hard-Weird--can tell you why. Someday, when a people's government compels it to explain its peculiar personnel and labor practices, we'll learn its reasons for its pernicious policies.)

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  9. In the meantime, pray treat Lena Vigna well. Like the rest of the salary serfs at a Waxtrash tax shelter, she didn't create the vile system in which she has been forced to function.

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  10. Mr. Angry - are you so ignorant to think if there was a vile system, she'd come to Racine. The only thing vile about Racine are individuals like you.

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  11. I beg to differ with you, Sir. The lady would go wherever she had to in order to land a curatorship yielding an upper-middle class income. Alas, the fact that the system is vile to most of us wouldn't deter a lady active in a profession which offers its practitioners access to extremely few remunerative positions.

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  12. First you beat her down and then wish her well on the next. Sounds like you are bipolar to me. Get some meds please.

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  13. Since the system's sick, it should receive medication. Rx: SOCIALISM.

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  14. In any event, I hope that the lady will gouge goodies galore out of the wicked Waxies before she advances to a better position beyond their sphere of influence.(The same applies to the rest of the Waxserfs. My quarrel is with our oligarchic oppressors, never with their victims, the paycheck peons.)

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  15. Mr. Angry come up with some new words - these are getting very, very old. You must be simplistic to continue with your trite sayings.

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  16. Often the truth is trite. Once we've dismantled corporate capitalism, you'll hear some new words from my successors.

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  17. Mr. Angry we will always keep the likes of you down and into the future. Low life, losers like you talk but have never done a thing for yourself, there is no way you are going to change a thing. You are too lazy to make a difference. In the mean time I will continue to enjoy my riches of my life as I squash people like you. We'll keep you where you belong in the gutter of life.

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  18. Dear Mister Arrogant, Baisez-moi le c-l. (When you do, the lady may observe your performance -- methinks she requires training in the art of disciplining rich blight trash, a task which plagues anyone who desires to do constructive work in our destructive-to-toxic socio-economic system.)

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  19. I am all for the lady and the advancement of her career. For the above reason, I wish her a brief but extremely lucrative stint in Racine followed by a major curatorship out East. The sooner she frees herself from the Waxies, the better!

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  20. Mr. Angry's - blah, blah, blah - I'm done with you. You are dismissed. I'm tired of communicating with low life losers.

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  21. Who's Mr. Angry? How do you know that I'm a "low-life" or a "loser"? For all you may know, I could be a mischievous Waxie on a prankish spree.

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  22. See you at the big-buck bash!

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  23. It was fun, wasn't it?

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  24. Anyhow, sincere best wishes and felicitations to our new curator of exhibitions! In Racine, she'll require all the help she can and may receive.

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  25. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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