There's been some noticeable and significant changes at The Parrish Art Museum in recent years. The commissioning and move into a new building designed by Herzog & de Meuron in Water Mill, N.Y. and the expansion of the exhibition space are a few external changes. Others were internal such as the addition of Andrea Grover to the Parrish staff and the creation of the Curator of Special Project position, held by Grover.
Since her arrival as associate curator, Grover's initiatives have gotten noticed—her programs have been touted as some of the best The Parrish has to offer by members of the Hamptons art community. As of this week, that opinion has some serious backup: The Parrish received a major grant to ensure the Curator of Special Projects position is a long-standing one.
Century Arts Foundation awarded a substantial grant to The Parrish Art Museum to fund the position over a five-year period, the museum announced yesterday. The position has now been retitled to Century Arts Foundation Curator of Special Project by way of acknowledgement and appreciation.
"With this long-term support, the museum can continue its work and realize bold new enterprises that position the Parrish as an internationally recognized museum and a locus for cultural and community engagement on the East End of Long Island," stated Parrish Art Museum Director Terrie Sultan in a press release.
Century Arts Foundation is a private philanthropic organization which facilitates the development of new cultural and artistic opportunities in the United States and Mexico. Previously, Century Arts Foundation donated $1 million to The Parrish as a Founding Partner for the Parrish Capital Campaign in 2010.
It's not a far reach to figure Andrea Grover's creative vision, initiative and her successes as Curator of Special Projects contributed to the decision to fund the Parrish position.
Grover joined the Parrish in January 2011 as Associate Curator. Since then, she has initiated a number of innovative projects crossing different artistic disciplines. The “Parrish Road Show” launched in 2012, enabled the museum to reach beyond the museum campus with artist-initiated projects. Venues have included a secluded open-air site at Montauk’s Camp Hero State Park, inside a historic wooden barn at the Bridgehampton Historical Society, within a prominent front-window section of the GeekHampton computer store in Sag Harbor, plus areas of historic sites in East Hampton, Sag Harbor and Riverhead.
Andrea Grover with body drawing by Shantell Martin.
The “Platform” series encourages invited artists to consider the museum spaces and the permanent collection in new ways. “Platform” artists, so far, have included Maya Lin, Josephine Meckseper and Hope Sandrow; the series will present Tara Donovan in 2015.
“Andrea Grover brings extraordinary vision, groundbreaking ideas, and inventive approaches to viewer participation with art across all media,” said Sultan. “We are fortunate to have her on our staff and fortunate that the Foundation shared our enthusiasm for her creativity, and supports her efforts so generously.”
In addition, Grover has overseen more than 250 music, theater, film screenings, panel discussions and other public events programs at the Parrish. Programs range from PechaKucha nights, a fast-paced series featuring 10 presenters from a myriad creative fields, to the world premiere of “Galápagos,” an original theatrical production based on the eponymous Kurt Vonnegut novel.
Grover’s most recent special project is the major exhibition and accompanying publication “Radical Seafaring,” scheduled for spring 2016 at the Parrish. “Radical Seafaring” garnered a prestigious Exhibition Award grant from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and a research and development grant from the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) Foundation and the Association of Art Museum Curators.
From 1998–2008, Grover was the Founding Director of Houston’s Aurora Picture Show, a non-profit cinema specializing in multi-disciplinary performances and screenings. In addition to 10 years of programming at Aurora, she has curated film programs for both the Dia Art Foundation and The Menil Collection.
Grover was a Core Fellow in residence at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston from 1995 to 1997, a Warhol Curatorial Fellow with the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry and Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh from 2010 to 2011, and a Center for Curatorial Leadership Fellow in New York in 2013. Grover holds an MFA in visual arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a BFA from Syracuse University.
BASIC FACTS: The Parrish Art Museum is located at 279 Montauk Hwy, Water Mill, NY 11976. www.parrishart.org.
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