December 2016


www.hamptonroadsmessenger.com


Chrysler Museum announces Gant as McKinnon Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art


and graduate school curatorial fellowship.


of completing her


Gant is in the final stages dissertation


entitled “Eko o ni baje (May Lagos Be Indestructible):


Photographic


Depictions of Lagos, Nigeria” at the University of Texas at Austin. She holds an M.A. in Art History from Columbia University (2009) and B.A. in Art History from Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif. (2002).


A popular


NORFOLK, Va. — Kimberli Gant will become the McKinnon Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Chrysler Museum of Art, Museum Director Erik Neil announced today.


Gant currently serves as the Mellon Doctoral


Fellow in the


Department of Arts of Global Africa at the Newark Museum, in Newark, N.J. She will conclude her fellowship before beginning her new role at the Chrysler in mid-January 2017.


“With her bold vision,


international perspective, scholarship, and verve, Kimberli Gant will be a valuable addition to the Chrysler Museum’s outstanding


curatorial


team,” Neil said. “She brings strong academic credentials and a breadth of professional experience.”


Among the recent exhibitions Gant has curated or co-curated are Wondrous Worlds: Art & Islam Through


Time & Place (The


Newark Museum, 2016); A Lifelong Adventure: Brandywine Workshop Prints from the


Green-Christian


Collection (University of Texas, John Warfield Center for African & African Diaspora Studies, 2013); De-Luxe, and New Works: April Woods (The Contemporary


Austin, 2012); and


There is No Looking Glass Here: Wide Sargasso Sea Re-Imagined (Deutsche Bank America, New York, 2010).


From 2005–2010, Gant served as Curator of Exhibitions


and


Public Programs at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in Brooklyn, N.Y. At MoCADA, she curated a number of well-received exhibitions and also initiated a high school and college internship program


conference


Gant is also widely published. Her scholarship has been included


lecturer, in


publications such as Anywhere But Here: Black Intellectuals


in the


Atlantic World and Beyond (2015, University Press of Mississippi), ART LIES: A Contemporary Art Quarterly, the journal African Arts, and exhibition catalogues


for The Contemporary


Austin, the Studio Museum of Harlem, and the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos.


“Kimberli brings to the Chrysler a strong point of view and great expertise,” said Chief Curator Lloyd DeWitt. “She has an impressive list of exhibitions and accomplishments. We’re delighted that she’s joining us as the McKinnon Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.”


In her new position at the


Chrysler, Gant will be responsible for the study, care, interpretation, and presentation of works of art in the Museum’s rich collection of modern and contemporary art.


“In overseeing our artworks


from the mid- 20th century to today, Kimberli’s research and interpretation will


only underscore the strength,


depth, and quality of a remarkable collection,” Neil noted.


“I am thrilled to be working at the


Chrysler as the McKinnon Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art,” Gant said. “The Museum has an amazing modern and contemporary collection, and fantastic new galleries, which will allow me to experiment,” Gant said.


“I love that Chrysler is a part of a growing visual arts community in Norfolk and Hampton Roads,” she added. “I’m really looking forward to bringing a new perspective to these objects and producing some exciting exhibitions.”


The Hampton Roads Messenger 3


National Park Service purchases Werowocomoco


WASHINGTON – Governor McAuliffe recently celebrated the National Park Service’s acquisition of Werowocomoco, the former capital of the Powhatan Chiefdom and the presumed site of Captain John Smith’s first meeting with the leader Powhatan and


his daughter, Pocahontas. When


opened to the public, the 264-acre property, located on the bank of the York River in Gloucester County, will be the crown jewel of the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail.


“Werowocomoco is a place of


unparalleled significance, not just for the Commonwealth’s Native community, but for the nation as a whole,”


McAuliffe, speaking and


said Governor at


sites in the country and it is a great achievement


that


prominent this


of the National today’s


announcement. “The Commonwealth of Virginia is home to some of the most important


historical


treasure is now under the permanent protection


archeological Park


Service. Werowocomoco will offer immense insight into untold history by showing us the complexity and depth of the Powhatan Chiefdom, and adds a new chapter to our shared American story.”


The announcement was made


today during the recognition ceremony at the U.S. Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C., and also served as an opportunity for tribal represen- tatives to share their knowledge of the site’s significance with state and federal officials. The private discussion among tribal leaders before the public announcement


offered “The United invaluable


insight into the town’s sacred nature and affirmed the project’s historical and archeological significance.


States has a


history going back long before 1607 when Captain John Smith was brought as a captive to Powhatan at Werowocomoco,” said United States Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell. “This Department and the National Park Service have profoundly significant relationships with, and re- sponsibilities


to, American Indians.


We are duty-bound to steward places like Werowocomoco for all people in


Terry


close consultation with tribes.” Only about


to but 1 percent of


Werowocomoco’s 50-acre archeological investigated


core has been date,


initial


findings suggest the extensive settlement was occupied as early as 1200 CE and functioned as a spiritual and political center for the region’s Algonquian Indians. At its peak, the Powhatan Chiefdom spread across much of eastern Virginia and may have included 30 tribes with an estimated population of above 14,000.


who landed at Jamestown in 1620, this acquisition of this important space is very personal to me,” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B.


Jarvis. “To Werowocomoco


many Americans, represents the


intersection between two dynamic cultures. But to many local Virginians, it is significant for the less-told story -- the story of people who were here long before John Smith or my ancestors, and whose descendants are an important part of our America.”


Since 2003, Virginia’s Indians


have worked with archeologists from the College of William and Mary to study and excavate the ancient town. Their efforts led to Werowocomoco’s 2006 listing on the National Register of Historic Places and spurred a conservation easement to be signed in 2013 by then-Governor


Bob


McDonnell, covering the site’s 50-acre archeological core.


the


Werowocomoco is managed by National Park Service through


their Chesapeake office and their staff on the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. Trail staff will begin a public planning process this winter in close consultation with the Virginia tribes. To learn more about the Werowocomoco park planning and research, please visit the National Park Service website at nps.gov


“As a Virginian with an ancestor


Chesapeake Square Mall | 2400 Portsmouth Blvd | Chesapeake, VA 757 405-3465 ebonyartsandgiſtsva@gmail.com


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