She will shine brighter light on African Art<\/p>\n
Nichole N. Bridges has been named the Saint Louis Art Museum Morton D. May Curator of the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas.<\/p>\n
Bridges has served the museum for nearly a decade after joining the institution in 2013 as the associate curator in charge of the Africa, Oceania and the Americas department.<\/p>\n
(The museum) has a world-class African Art collection that deserves more attention, Bridges said. And so thats why Im here.<\/p>\n
In 2018, she refreshed its presentation of African art - and there is more to come.<\/p>\n
The reason I do the work that I do and believe in my work so strongly is that there is really visually stunning, dramatic, beautiful artwork made by African hands, Bridges said.<\/p>\n
Bridges recently transformed how visitors experience the museums rich collection of Oceanic art through a significant renovation of a suite of galleries that will reopen this week.<\/p>\n
Nichole has made prolific contributions to the museum, said Brent R. Benjamin, the Barbara B. Taylor Director of the Saint Louis Art Museum.<\/p>\n
With this years Oceanic installation, she offers our visitors new ways of seeing and thinking about these important aspects of the Art Museums comprehensive collection.<\/p>\n
Bridges has curated several museum exhibitions including Currents 109: Nick Cave (2014) and Adorning Self and Space: West African Textiles (2015). She served as in-house curator for the main exhibitions Atua: Sacred Gods from Polynesia (2014) and Senufo: Art and Identity in West Africa (2015).<\/p>\n
Bridges, an art historian of African art, also guest curated the reinstallation of the Cincinnati Art Museums collection galleries for African art, which reopened in 2016. <\/p>\n
When Senufo: Art and Identity in West Africa opened at the Saint Louis Art Museum, it was the first African art exhibition there in more than 15 years.<\/p>\n
I love museums and I love engaging with all types of audiences through African Art, Bridges told The American in 2015. And I love finding ways to introduce and make a bridge between Africa and our visitors.<\/p>\n
She curated her latest effort in collaboration with subject expert Philippe Peltier. It opens at the same time as a special installation of Australian Aboriginal art, co-curated by Bridges and Alexander Brier Marr, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Assistant Curator for Native American Art.<\/p>\n
Bridges is a former associate curator at the Newark Museum and head of the Department of the Arts of Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific Islands at the Baltimore Museum of Art.<\/p>\n
She holds a bachelors degree in fine arts (art history) and French from Amherst College in Amherst, Mass., and a masters degree and doctorate in art history from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.<\/p>\n
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Bridges to helm Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas Art Museum - St. Louis American<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" She will shine brighter light on African Art Nichole N. Bridges has been named the Saint Louis Art Museum Morton D Continue reading