UCSB Art, Design & Architecture Museum Reopens to Visitors, Names New Director | Arts & Entertainment

After a pandemic-related closure of more than a year and a half, during which exhibitions appeared exclusively online, the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at UC Santa Barbara has reopened its galleries to the public with three exhibitions and an event schedule. and a new director.

Gabriel Ritter, an expert in Japanese modern and contemporary art and museum science, comes to campus from the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia). At UCSB, he will both lead the AD&A Museum and teach as a new faculty member at the Department of History of Art and Architecture (HAA).

“We are pleased to welcome Gabriel Ritter at UC Santa Barbara to lead our Art, Design & Architecture Museum into the future as the new director,” said Federal Chancellor Henry T. Yang. “With a solid background in top art institutions, he has the expertise and vision to expand and diversify our permanent collections and help our campus and the local community discover important works through gallery exhibitions.

“In his additional faculty function within our Institute for Art and Architectural History, Dr. Ritter play a key role in shaping our courses in art history and museum studies and enrich the education of our students. “

Prior to his five years as Mias curator and contemporary art director, Ritter held curatorial positions at the Dallas Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles. He has curated a variety of influential exhibitions, with an emphasis on the work of emerging and underrepresented artists from the US, Europe and Asia. Ritter holds a PhD from UCLA.

With his academic passion for the critical examination of art history and his profound professional experience in art curation, Ritter will accompany the further development of the museum and play a key role in the expansion of the HAA’s museum study program.

“I am very pleased with the promise that the AD&A Museum has as a teaching facility that primarily serves the students and lecturers on campus,” said Ritter. “I see the campus community as our core audience and key stakeholders, and I look forward to connecting with UCSB students and faculty and seeing how the AD&A Museum can be a more active partner in their academic life.

“I was also drawn to the amazing intellectual resources that a university museum like the AD&A Museum has to offer. The opportunities to work with students, faculty and alumni on future exhibitions and programs seem endless. “

“On behalf of the Humanities and Fine Arts Department, I am pleased to welcome Gabriel Ritter as Director of the Art, Design & Architecture Museum and as Associate Professor at the Institute for Art and Architectural History on our campus,” said Mary Hancock, Acting Dean for the humanities and fine arts.

“Ritter’s academic training in modern Japanese art, his experience in curating contemporary art, and his building and public relations skills will enable him to see the AD&A Museum in its sixth decade as an innovative campus institution and cultural resource for all of Santa Barbara -Church to lead. ” She said.

It is a community that Ritter is already familiar with. Born in Los Angeles, he often visited Santa Barbara with his growing parents, toured the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, ate at Joe’s Café and strolled through the long-loved, long-gone bookstore Earthling. The fond memories and beauty of Santa Barbara were part of what attracted Ritter to the university. But even bigger, he said, is “its unique location between Los Angeles and San Francisco”.

“While I am still familiarizing myself with the cultural peculiarities of the Central Coast, the proximity to these important cultural centers speaks for itself, but also the distance, in order to cultivate the own identity of a community on its own terms,” ​​said Ritter.

“There are also special assets that are unique to UCSB, such as the museum’s Architecture & Design Collection (ADC) and the library’s California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives. Having these amazing resources available is really something special and will offer endless possibilities for future research and potential exhibitions. “

In his new dual role, Ritter described it as a “dream job” that enabled him to network with young scholars on issues of art, justice, the role of art in society and the adaptability and necessity of the museum sector. He also hopes to “highlight the social dimension of art in the museum’s presentations”.

“Our visitors should see themselves – their identity and their realities – reflected in the exhibited works and at the same time be challenged to empathize with opposing truths, opinions and ways of life,” said Ritter.

“I firmly believe that the ideal setting for these conversations is the university’s art museum, where students, faculty, staff and community members alike can interact openly and critically with a variety of art practices,” he said.

“In this way, art can be an important lens for cultivating empathy and understanding for others and at the same time providing a framework for actively questioning and possibly dismantling systems of oppression that many are confronted with on a daily basis,” said Ritter.

Silvia Perea, curator of the ADC and acting director of the museum until Ritter arrives, said her new colleague will support the AD&A Museum’s efforts to become “an even more inclusive think tank for social action and an even stronger incubator for related actions”. . “

“Gabriel Ritter has worked in some of the largest and largest museums in the United States that have extensive networks, ambitious programs, and powerful fundraising resources,” said Perea.

“With his rich experience in these museums, he will build the AD&A Museum’s image on campus, in our community and beyond,” she said. “His management and curatorial background in these global institutions will benefit the further expansion and maintenance of our collections, while at the same time improving the museum’s digital reach and service.

“In addition, his expertise in modern and contemporary East Asian art will fuel the museum’s longstanding interest in expanding our holdings from these origins and attracting more members of the Asian community to our galleries.”

As a new associate professor for the history of art and architecture, Ritter will also contribute his professional experience to “develop museum courses that incorporate non-Western exhibition historiographies and examine comparative models of curatorial practice in a broad global context”.

A course that he has already planned for the spring quarter will deal with current topics from the museum sector, such as fair representation.

“The UCSB Department of History of Art & Architecture is full of such great scholars and has a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach,” he said. “Your emphasis on global perspectives and intercultural exchange comes very close to my approach to my own research and curatorial projects so far, so I think I will be very much at home.

“The prospect of working across departments with colleagues from other areas is also incredibly exciting.”

In the museum he has a perfect learning laboratory: Ritter said he would use the galleries of the AD&A Museum “as an extended classroom and the museum’s permanent collection as a teaching aid to train and inspire the next generation of art historians and museum curators”.

Ritter’s arrival is a win-win situation – for the museum he now runs and for the academic department he has joined.

“The presence of Gabriel Ritter in the department enables us to focus our interdisciplinary focus on transpacific projects, which u Chairman of the HAA.

“We look forward to his contribution and participation in our museum study program, which we intend to intensify at both graduate and undergraduate level in the coming years, and welcome the opportunity to work with the AD&A Museum,” said Monahan.

[ad_1]