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Selected Lectures and Programs

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

ongoing

 

My recent work has focused on producing and curating public programs that incorporate direct access to artists and scholars; invite audiences to engage in experiential learning through art making opportunities, live demonstrations, and food-based programming; and activate the museum spaces through sound and movement-based performance. These programs have been developed to support learning initiatives connected to a wide range of exhibitions, object acquisitions, institutional histories, and strategic goals, in addition to supporting key partnerships. Program partners have included the Lewis Walpole Library at Yale University, CT State Community College Capital, TheaterWorks Hartford, the Tony Smith Foundation, Performa, Hartford Art School at University of Hartford, Wesleyan University's Center for the Arts, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, The Amistad Center for Art and Culture, and many other community organizations and culinary partners. 

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Program image, Matrix: On the Art of Tom. Burr, Torkwase Dyson, and Tony Smith, 2022.  Images courtesy of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

Program images, lectures and gallery talks, 2022–. Images courtesy of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

Program images, MATRIX artist conversations, 2022–. Images courtesy of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

Selected Academic Lecture & Artist Talks

 

The list below represents a selection of recent lectures and artist conversations organized to provide audience members with direct access to recent advances in the field of visual art and material culture with some of the major scholars and artists of our time. These lectures have explored contemporary art, American and European decorative arts, architecture, fashion, photography, and performance, responding to the encyclopedic holdings of the Wadsworth Atheneum.

Matrix: On the Art of Tom Burr, Torkwase Dyson, and 

      Tony Smith, artists Torkwase Dyson and Tom Burr

      and art historian James Voorhies, 2022

Sarah Lewis, historian, 2022

Letitia Chambers, curator, 2022

Justine Kurland, artist, 2022

Jack Lowery & Andrea Lawlor, authors, 2022

Jelani Cobb, author, 2023

Stephen Harrison, art historian and curator, 2023

Remembering a Dance, Yvonne Rainer & Emily

      Coates, dancers and choreographers, 2023

Barbara Drake Boehm, art historian and curator, 2023

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (historian), Sarah Lewis

      (historian), and Sir Isaac Julien (artist), 2023

Daina Ramey Berry, historian, 2023

Janine Antoni, artist, 2024

Martino Stierli, architectural historian, 2024

Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., author, 2024

Sonya Clark, artist, 2024

Rachel Portesi, artist, 2024

Nancy Hall-Duncan, art historian and curator, 2024 

Cynthia E. Chin, art historian, 2024

Adrienne L. Childs, 2024

Daniel Alarcón, journalist, 2024

Christopher Le Brun, artist, 2024 (forthcoming)

Deborah Hay, choreographer, 2024 (forthcoming)

Annette Gordon-Reed, historian, 2025 (forthcoming)

Gallery Talks

​Adam has organized more than fifty gallery talks supporting exhibitions, recent acquisitions, and conservation treatments with Wadsworth curators and conservators Philippe Halbert, Matthew Hargraves, Patricia Hickson, Allen Kosanovich, Ned Lazaro, Casey Mallinckrodt, Erin Monroe, Jared Quinton, Linda Roth, Vanessa Sigalas, and Oliver Tostmann, as well as guest specialists including 

Lisa Brody (curator), Emily Coates (dancer and choreographer), and Robert Wiesenberger.

MATRIX Artist Conversations

MATRIX, a changing series of contemporary art exhibitions at the Wadsworth Atheneum, was initially funded in 1974 as an experimental pilot project. Since its first exhibition in January 1975, the series has presented nearly 200 contemporary art exhibitions as a forum for art that is challenging, current, and sometimes controversial. MATRIX has inspired more than 50 similar programs across the country at museums in Atlanta, Berkeley, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington. DC.

Nevine Mahmoud & Patricia Hickson, 2022 

Nevine Mahmoud & Pipilotti Rist, 2022

Naama Tsabar & Patricia Hickson, 2022

Naama Tsabar & Laurie Anderson, 2022

Stephanie Syjuco & Jared Quinton, 2022

Stephanie Syjuco & Byron Kim, 2022

Matt Paweski & Jared Quinton, 2023

Lisa Alvarado & Jared Quinton, 2023 

Talia Chetrit & Nuar Alsadir, 2023 

Kyle Dunn & Jared Quinton, 2024

Alan Ruiz, Soyoung Yoon, and Jared Quinton, 2024

Program images, performances, 2022–. Images courtesy of the

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

Program images, 2022–. Images courtesy of the

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

Program images, Stories in Silver, 2023–2024. Images courtesy of the

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

Selected Performances

 

Stories in Silver  was a series of interactive events at the Wadsworth exploring the global narratives presented in the Silver Vault, an installation of more than 350 silver objects from the museum's permanent collection. The programs in the series combine a curator talk and gallery viewing with a culinary component that reinforced the narratives surrounding silver's ties to historic practices of food consumption and trade.  

Sunday Serenades series, concerts, 2022–

Music in the Galleries series, concerts, 2022–

Naama Tsabar, video performance, 2022

National Information Society, concert, 2023

Alvin Lucier's (Hartford) Memory Space, performance

      installation, 2023

Balanchine Traces, dance theater performance and

      artist residency, 2024

Deborah Hay, lecture and performance, 2024

Demonstrations, Art Making Classes, and Interactive Programs

 

Stories in Silver  was a series of interactive events at the Wadsworth exploring the global narratives presented in the Silver Vault, an installation of more than 350 silver objects from the museum's permanent collection. The programs in the series combine a curator talk and gallery viewing with a culinary component that reinforced the narratives surrounding silver's ties to historic practices of food consumption and trade.  

Peter Cusack, drawing classes, 2022–

Michele Micarelli, rug hooking demo, 2023

Chasing Rembrandt Brunch, lecture and food-based

      program, 2023

Stephen Hammer, woodworking demo, 2023

Evoke Tintypes, tintype workshop, 2023

Stephano Espinoza Galarza, drawing class, 2024

Luis Colan, drawing class, 2025 (forthcoming)

Alibaba Awrang, calligraphy demo, (forthcoming)

Stories in Silver 

 

Stories in Silver  was a series of interactive events at the Wadsworth exploring the global narratives presented in the Silver Vault, an installation of more than 350 silver objects from the museum's permanent collection. The programs in the series combine a curator talk and gallery viewing with a culinary component that reinforced the narratives surrounding silver's ties to historic practices of food consumption and trade.  

The Punch Bowl, 2022

The Chocolate Pot, 2023

The Nutmeg Grater and the Pepper Pot, 2024

Support for the installation of the Wadsworth’s silver collection provided by the Henry Luce Foundation, the Ka