Bif Naked
EVENT LISTINGS
The Opening – Rachel Rosenfield Lafo
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THE OPENING is all about introducing the fascinating, quirky and wonderful people working in and around the visual arts in Vancouver. Each week, we’ll feature an artist, collective, curator or administrator to delve deep into who and what makes art happen! |
Rachel Rosenfield Lafo is a recent transplant to Vancouver from Boston, MA. With a long career as a Curator in a couple of different institutions in the United States, she expected to have little problem finding a similar position here. I chatted with Lafo at Everything Cafe in Chinatown recently about what she’s done before, what she expected in Vancouver, and how she’s overcoming a lack of institutional art positions in the city.
Lafo leading Public Art Tour of Coal Harbour during Vancouver Art Hop, April 30, 2011
Before you moved to Vancouver you worked at the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum for 24 years in Massachusetts, first as Senior Curator and later as Director of Curatorial Affairs. Can you tell me a bit about your roles and what you did during your time there?
The DeCordova was, at that time, a regional New England museum. It had a collection of modern and contemporary American art focused primarily on New England artists, as well as a 35-acre sculpture park. In the Sculpture Park we exhibited artwork from all over the United States. The Museum’s focus has changed since I left but that’s what the mission was when I was hired.
As first Senior Curator and then Director of Curatorial Affairs I was administrative head of the department. I organized exhibitions, wrote catalogues, recommended works for acquisition for the collection… basically all the things museum curators do. I was very active in the local art community going on studio visits, seeing shows, giving lectures, serving on art juries, leading art trips, and meeting with collectors and other colleagues. I also traveled to see art outside of the area.
Which artists did you work with while you were there?
Many, especially after being there for that many years. You probably will not have heard of these artists who are well known in the New England and New York art communities – Gerry Bergstein, Mary Frank, Scott Prior, Gregory Amenoff, Tabitha Vevers. They all had New York gallery representation and so are known there but I don’t think they are known here. I organized a one-person show of William Tucker’s sculpture – he’s a well-known British artist now living in the US, and another of bronze self-portraits by Robert Arneson, a well-known California artist who died in the 1990s. I also curated many group exhibitions on themes such as self-identity, humor, photographs of children, highly detailed mark-making, and animals in art. I worked with a range of artists from younger emerging artists to older more established artists.
At the time, what was your impression of Vancouver as an art community?
I don’t think I had much of an impression, frankly. It wasn’t really a scene that was discussed in Boston. Now the Boston art scene, although quite lively, is not well-known outside the area because Boston lives in the shadow of New York. Years ago I lived in Portland, Oregon and worked as a Curator at the Portland Art Museum. I did visit Vancouver then. So I had some idea about the Vancouver art scene, but that was a long time ago! Things were much different then. I remember going to the Vancouver Art Gallery… I don’t think the Contemporary …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>
