ADAM LENZ
producer . curator . educator . artist
Selected Lectures and Programs
The Wadsworth
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, Austin Arts Center at Trinity College, and many other community organizations and culinary partners.
Program image, Matrix: On the Art of Tom. Burr, Torkwase Dyson, and Tony Smith, 2022. Images courtesy of The Wadsworth, Hartford, Connecticut.
Program images, lectures and gallery talks, 2022–. Images courtesy of The Wadsworth, Hartford, Connecticut.
Program images, MATRIX artist conversations, 2022–. Images courtesy of The Wadsworth, Hartford, Connecticut.
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
Deborah Hay, choreographer, 2024
Annette Gordon-Reed, historian, 2025
Walter B. Denny, art historian, 2025
Joachim Homann, art historian, 2025
Grant B. Romer, photography historian, 2025
Marie Watt, artist, 2025
Deborah Brown, artist, 2025
Anthony Jack, scholar, 2026
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 (curator).
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 and Patricia Hickson, 2022
Nevine Mahmoud and Pipilotti Rist, 2022
Naama Tsabar and Patricia Hickson, 2022
Naama Tsabar and Laurie Anderson, 2022
Stephanie Syjuco and Jared Quinton, 2022
Stephanie Syjuco and Byron Kim, 2022
Matt Paweski and Jared Quinton, 2023
Lisa Alvarado and Jared Quinton, 2023
Talia Chetrit and Nuar Alsadir, 2023
Kyle Dunn and Jared Quinton, 2024
Alan Ruiz, Soyoung Yoon, and Jared Quinton, 2024
Steffani Jemison and Jared Quinton, 2025
Sofía Gallisá Muriente and Jared Quinton, 2025
Mariel Capanna and Jared Quinton, 2026
Program images, performances, 2022–. Images courtesy of The Wadsworth, Hartford, Connecticut.
Program images, 2022–. Images courtesy of the
The Wadsworth, Hartford, Connecticut.
Program images, Stories in Silver, 2023–2024. Images courtesy of The Wadsworth, Hartford, Connecticut.
Selected Performances
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
Tell Me Where It Comes From, performance, 2026
Demonstrations, Art Making Classes, and Interactive Programs
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 classes, 2024-
Luis Colan, drawing class, 2025
Alibaba Awrang, calligraphy demo, 2025
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 Karen Kelleher Fund, and the William and Alice Mortensen Foundation. Support for the Stories in Silver programs provided by the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation Fund at the Wadsworth Atheneum.