The Mint Museum has hired Brad Thomas as its new curator of contemporary art effective January 23, Mint President & CEO Dr. Kathleen V. Jameson has announced.
The Mint Museum has hired Brad Thomas as its new curator of contemporary art effective January 23, Mint President & CEO Dr. Kathleen V. Jameson has announced.
Thomas has served as the director and curator of the Van Every/Smith Galleries at Davidson College since 1999. The newly-created Mint position is a reflection of the opportunities brought by the opening of the Mint Museum Uptown building in fall 2010. “This is a tremendous step in strengthening the museum’s commitment to modern and contemporary art, which will be a strategic priority over the next five years and beyond,” Jameson said. “Brad brings great strengths to the museum, adding depth and further expertise.”
For Thomas, the move is a natural step after more than 20 years in the local arts community. “As an undergraduate art student at UNC Charlotte in the early 90s, I was acutely aware of the sometimes polarizing nature of the arts in this community,” Thomas said. “I am excited to join The Mint Museum and its talented team of curators at this critical juncture when the arts are now a unifying source of cultural pride and identity.”
During Thomas’ tenure at Davidson, he organized dozens of exhibitions and collaborative projects, including the international artists-in-residency project Force of Nature, which centered on site-specific installations by ten Japanese artists at seven American institutions. Thomas has also led initiatives to integrate visual art into the learning experience, most notably through the establishment of Davidson’s Campus Sculpture Program, which features major outdoor installations by Magdalena Abakanowicz, Antony Gormley, Joel Shapiro, and William Tucker. He also produced publications on Magdalena Abakanowicz, Ewan Gibbs, Herb Jackson, Robert Lazzarini, Reverend McKendree Robbins Long, and Joel Shapiro. His partnership with the College Writing Program in 2012 led to the release of Davidson Collects: 100 Writers Respond to Art, the first interdisciplinary book on Davidson College’s permanent art collection, which features 100 essays on selected works by undergraduate students from a wide variety of majors.
Thomas will work closely with Carla Hanzal, curator of modern and contemporary art, and the rest of the Mint’s curatorial staff.