Page 135 - Abilene Living

art history at the Meadows School of Art at SMU on a Meadows Artistic Scholar-ship Award. In 1991 she moved with her three children to Abilene. She started the Cooper Parent Partnership at Cooper High School and settled in to raise fve teenagers, her three plus two stepsons. While her children attended Cooper, Judy’s children volunteered her to help with Larry Millers’ art history class. Judy started teaching art history as an adjunct professor at McMurry Univer-sity. This led to eleven years teaching a wide variety of ancient and modern art history classes, directing the campus Ryan Art Gallery, and sponsoring the arts honorary society and a girls’ social club. Running the McMurry gallery was one more step on her path to museum curating, though she didn’t realize it at the time.

Judy joined The Grace fve years ago as curator. A curator researches then conceptualizes a theme, bringing works of art together to deliver a co-hesive art experience to an audience. “All my years in interior design and

visualizing in the third dimension help me see the possibilities that are real-ized in the fnal installation. It’s bring-ing it all together under one idea, so when people walk in they can share an experience. They usually have no idea that what they are seeing is the product of several years of work. If I do my job well, no one knows I’m here. The art, the labels, the exhibition design, the lighting appear as if by magic.” Visitors are often surprised at the depth and quality of art The Grace exhibits. “When I went to an opening in New York City at a prestigious gallery, I heard art collectors talking about Texas art as an important center in today’s art

world, I realized we could capitalize on the rich traditions and current contem-porary trends emerging in our own backyard.” The Grace exhibition focus has shifted to Texas art of the past and present within the context of American Art.

Judy is chief curator now, strength-ened by a great curatorial staff. The recent addition of two talented young people to the curatorial department is a tremendous help to her ambitious col-lection and exhibition plans. The Grace averages about ffteen exhibits a year, most curated by Judy. “It’s often a one time opportunity – meet the artist, de-sign the galleries, create programming, borrow works of art, then install the exhibit. After three or four months, it all goes back to the lenders. We repaint the galleries and start again.” “We try to bring exhibitions that will engage the community in some way,” she said. “Art can edu-cate, inspire, challenge or make you see things in a new way.” Judy notes that today people are living parallel