By BIG RED NEWS EDITOR
Laura Donaldson was informed last February that her days with the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) were numbered. The BCA no longer wanted a Director for its Mills Gallery; a reorganization of its management and re-branding of its programming was beginning to take root.
The elimination of Donaldson's position will betide the BCA this summer, after three and a half years under her diligent stewardship and curatorial leadership. This news concerned and dismayed the arts community of Boston. Bill Arning the Curator of MIT's List Visual Arts Center and well known supporter of local artists says, "Many of us are concerned... It's just disrespectful to good curating." Hiroko Kikuchi, an artist who worked with Donaldson at the Mills, stated that "she will be missed, and the Mills will be missed without her... there are almost no spaces like the Mills in Boston anymore."
A press release outlining the BCA's new programming model says that the BCA "will continue to host exhibitions [at the Mills Gallery]of cutting-edge contemporary works by established and emerging Boston-based visual artists with a focus on making the experience inviting, interactive and educational." A Curatorial Advisory Board will advise Wendy Baring-Gould, the newly-created Director of Arts and Community Programs, and a new Visual Arts Manager, who has yet to be named. Members Advisory Board will include: Edmund Barry Gaither, Director and Curator of the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists (NCAAA); Camilo Alvarez, Director of Samson Projects; Barbara Krakow, President, Barbara Krakow Gallery; Stella A. McGregor, Director of The Cloud Foundation; and Carole Anne Meehan, curator of Vita Brevis at the ICA.
To help introduce their new programming model, the BCA is hosting an Annual Meeting; all are welcome. The meeting will take place on June 20 at 5:30pm in the Cyclorama at the BCA. It will also include special performances. The BCA asks that attendees RSVP to Cara Wojcik at 617-426-2924 or cwojcik@bcaonline.org.
Mills Gallery at the Boston Center for the Arts
"(un)Building" is on view June 8 - July 29, 2007 at The Mills Gallery.
