As KAM embraces a refreshed mission and strategic plan, a new connection with the Office of the Chancellor will strengthen our threads with the university and promote sustainability. KAM Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Amy L. Powell began an additional role at the Chancellor’s Office in 2023 as the curator of campus arts research within the new Office for Arts Integration and under the direction of Cynthia Oliver, the special advisor to the chancellor for arts integration.
The new office aims to amplify and infuse the arts and creative practices across campus in various ways such as embedding the arts into teaching and learning and broadening community partnerships and engagement with the arts. Additionally, the office aspires to activate more interdisciplinary arts research through collaborations between artists and researchers—all goals that align with those of KAM.
Within this role, Powell hopes to continue supporting the research and production of practicing artists by bringing them to campus, fostering collaborations with faculty researchers, and providing space and resources to create deeper connections with both campus and community.
“One feature of campus arts research is that it establishes the possibility of building upon potential exhibitions at KAM with a more profound engagement with other campus sites or resources,” said Powell. One of the first events hosted by this office took place in early fall 2024. At the Gallery Art Bar, madison moore—artist-scholar, DJ, and assistant professor of modern culture and media at Brown University—delivered "Pump the Beat: Queer Nightlife at the Edge," a performance lecture centered around queer Black nightlife organized by Powell, Blair Ebony Smith, and Rachel Lauren Storm. The event coincided with KAM’s closing events for Jen Everett’s exhibition Could you dim the lights? and the community’s annual music- and entertainment-focused PYGMALION Festival.
Author: Mariana Seda, Associate Director for Strategic Communications, College of Fine and Applied Arts
