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Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Announces New Associate Curator, Contemporary Art

Allison Glenn
Allison Glenn

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art announces the appointment of Allison Glenn as Associate Curator, Contemporary Art. Glenn joins the Crystal Bridges curatorial team on February 12, 2018.

In this new role, Glenn will contribute to the growing contemporary art program with exhibition development, publications, and planning.  She will be contributing to ongoing projects and collaborations, including the further development of the North Forest and collection focus shows.

“We are thrilled to welcome Allison to the museum,” said Crystal Bridges Curator, Contemporary Art, Lauren Haynes. “She brings a collaborative approach and great perspective that will help build on our contemporary art program and connect visitors to engaging arts experiences.”

“I am excited to be joining Crystal Bridges and look forward to getting to know the Northwest Arkansas community,” said Glenn. “I have dedicated my career to the cultivation of inclusive art histories, and am eager to bring my passion to a dynamic museum with a celebrated mission of welcoming all.”

Glenn comes to Crystal Bridges from Prospect New Orleans, as Manager of Publications and Curatorial Associate where she oversaw the catalog development and aspects of artists’ projects related to the international art triennial Prospect.4The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp, which opened in November, 2017.  Prior to Prospect, Glenn was the Director of Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago, where she co-directed and oversaw the careers of 16 emerging and early-career artists, curating the 2015 exhibition Look at Me Now! with rising artists such as Nina Chanel Abney, who recently installed a mural at Crystal Bridges.  Forthcoming projects include Out of Easy Reach, hosted by DePaul Art Museum, a cross-institutional exhibition countering conventional accounts of abstraction through an intergenerational cross-section of 24 female-identifying artists working now, who employ abstraction in their work. A full-color catalog, authored and edited by Glenn, will accompany the show.

Glenn has contributed to several  exhibition publications, such as Wanderlust: Actions, Traces, Journeys 1967-2017, MIT Press (2017); Prospect.4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp (2017), and Prospect 3: Notes for Now (2014) Prospect New Orleans and DelMonico Prestel ; Noah Purifoy: Junk Dada, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art and DelMonico Prestel(2015); Fore, The Studio Museum in Harlem (2012), and she has contributed to HyperallergicART21 MagazinePelican Bomb, and Newcity. Glenn received a Bachelor of Fine Art Photography with a co-Major in Urban Studies from Wayne State University and dual Masters degrees in Modern Art History, Theory and Criticism and Arts Administration and Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

“Allison already has an impressive body of work—and we look forward to her continuing to advance the field of American art at Crystal Bridges. She will be a fantastic asset to our team and our community,” said Haynes.