Amid all the cutting back and going lean news, it’s good to report on potential curatorial advancements, even small ones.
Yoko Ott, freelance curator and laid-off member of the Frye curatorial team (heading a terrific program she originated for children’s art engagement at the Frye) is going to be director of exhibitions at Open Satellite. (Review of current show here.) The founding director, Abigail Guay, is moving to the Henry to reopen a collections study center, which closed at the Henry more than a decade ago.
Guay will make artwork in the Henry collection available to students, scholars, critics and researchers. While it’s good news about the reopening of the center, the job at first hearing doesn’t sound as if it will be a good enough platform for Guay’s talents. What shows will she curate?
Ott will get a real chance to shine at Open Satellite, which functions as a kind of Peace Corps for contemporary art in Bellevue. It’s a go-forth-and-share-with-suburbanites aesthetic imperative. Funded chiefly by developer John Su, OS is applying for nonprofit status, which is reasonable. The profits reaped there are not financial.
No word yet on whether Ott will also continue to curate the lobby space at the Lee Center, or her job at 826 Seattle. Ott likes to do a lot of things at once, but even for her, handling all three assignments might be a stretch.
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