Anna Stothart, the San Antonio Museum of Art Brown Foundation Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, recently announced she is taking her talents to New York, where she will assume a newly created position as director at Lehmann Maupin Gallery.
Stothart, who holds a master’s degree in art history and museum studies with an emphasis on contemporary Latin American art from Tufts University, began as the SA Museum of Art’s contemporary art curator in February 2015, and has since brought two traveling exhibitions — 28 Chinese and Corita Kent and the Language of Pop – to the Museum, and oversaw the reinstallation of the contemporary galleries.
In New York, she will oversee and create the gallery’s programming and written content, and will also work on acquiring major collections for exhibition. Stothart’s final day at the Museum will be Friday, April 29, according to Cary Marriott, SA Museum of Art director of marketing. Museum staff has not yet began a search for Stothart’s replacement.
“It is with sadness that I leave San Antonio. I leave behind great friends and colleagues, a welcoming art community, and a wonderful museum. This was an incredible opportunity that I couldn’t pass up,” Stothart stated in a recent news release. “I look forward to furthering my connection to San Antonio through the Museum, and the city’s collectors and artists.”
Stothart’s background, which includes previously working as curatorial associate and curatorial assistant at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston (ICA), along with her “connection to art” made her a valuable asset to the San Antonio art community.
“One of the things that impressed us right away about Anna was that she is passionate about art … and has a special engagement with working with artists,” said the Museum’s Chief Curator William Keyse Rudolph. “We will miss the fact that she was the best ambassador for the Museum that we could’ve had because of the way she totally became part of the community.”
Stothart also gave “fresh” perspectives on the Museum’s current collection as well as on new art acquisitions, he said.
“She had sort of a wonderful vision of what contemporary art can be in San Antonio and she alerted all of us to that possibility and we’re gonna continue to build on our contemporary program,” Rudolph said. “We’ll miss her, but we appreciate so much the fact that she worked so hard when she was with us.”
Stothart’s departure comes at an unlucky time for SA Museum of Art staff, who had to prematurely remove the Corita Kent and the Language of Pop exhibition last week due to extensive hail damage on the roof of the Cowden Gallery where it was located. While none of the artwork was damaged, Marriott said Museum staff is “heartbroken” to have ended the exhibition early, especially since the Museum was one of only two national venues to host it.
Visitors will still have an opportunity to learn about Kent at a free lecture on Friday, May 6, at 6 p.m. The lecture will feature Thomas Crow, PhD., New York University professor of modern art, who will discuss the role of religion in Kent’s work. The Museum also invites visitors to view four free video screenings that show Kent at work through May 8.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article’s headline stated Stothart was contemporary art director instead of curator.
Top image: A video by artist Sam Lerma is projected onto the warehouse at the San Antonio Museum of Art. Photo by Scott Ball
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