I've been grappling with how to write this post. Like much of America, I'm angry, scared, and sad, and I'm trying to wade through fact, fiction, and rage bait designed to distract and confuse us. But what's immediately clear to me is that this new administration is wasting no time targeting vulnerable groups. And although … Continue reading I stand with you.
Author: Art with an Opinion
Tanya (she/her) graduated Cum Laude with a BA in Art History/minor in Cultural Anthropology from UCLA in 2010. Her background in the arts involves curating local artists, marketing contemporary arts programs to new audiences, volunteering at various institutions, and providing support to several departments within Hammer Museum during her time at UCLA. She currently serves on the Experience Committee of the Junior Associates at Dallas Museum of Art.
Originally from Boston, Tanya has also lived in Arizona and California, and she’s currently based in Dallas while she pursues her Master of Liberal Arts (ALM) in Museum Studies with Harvard Extension School. She’s passionate about public engagement and exhibition design, which stems from research she did with Hammer Museum as an undergrad, where she discovered the endless power and potential of strong public programming. She is working toward her vision of opening her own art space, and would also love to design and curate exhibitions at museums around the globe.
You’ll find her engaging with as many museums as she can when she travels – among her favorites are the Seattle Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, and MAD in NYC. When she’s not exploring local art scenes, she’s relaxing with a good book, catching a concert, or visiting friends and family on either coast.
Tanya can be reached at artwithanopinion@gmail.com.
The Lost Glory of Africa: Moyo Ogundipe’s Soliloquy: Life’s Fragile Fictions
Tucked in a small corner at the far edge of the “Arts of Africa” exhibition at the Denver Art Museum, visitors will find a four foot by six foot acrylic on canvas created by Nigerian painter Moyo Ogundipe in 1997 (Fig. 1). Vibrant colors flow across the canvas, almost as if they are dancing, broken … Continue reading The Lost Glory of Africa: Moyo Ogundipe’s Soliloquy: Life’s Fragile Fictions
The Uncertain History of a Family Heirloom
Sometime in the mid-1900s, my grandfather’s uncle Calvin Yorks was gifted a blanket by a Southwestern Native American tribe member; the context in which this blanket was gifted is lost to time, and our family does not know the exact origins of the textile or who in particular bestowed the gift to my great-uncle. What … Continue reading The Uncertain History of a Family Heirloom
Beach of Valencia (Playa de Valencia) at the Meadows Museum
Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida grew in popularity among European art circles in the late 1800s and reached a limited audience in America during the early 1900s as well (“Meadows Museum to Present Works by Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida”). Despite selling numerous works to American collectors, Sorolla’s works largely remained in those private collections … Continue reading Beach of Valencia (Playa de Valencia) at the Meadows Museum
Cummaquid Gold at the Cape Cod Museum of Art
In early 2024, the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis, Massachusetts hosted the exhibition Familial, which featured works from the museum’s permanent collection that were created by families with connections to Cape Cod. The exhibition explored the legacy of artmaking traditions as passed down through local families over time, representing both the rich artistic … Continue reading Cummaquid Gold at the Cape Cod Museum of Art
Neck Rings at The Bowers Museum
The Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California boasts a significant collection of Asian, African, Oceanic, and American art, spanning many centuries in the past through present day. The museum’s mission statement is rather broad—“The Bowers Museum enriches lives through the world’s finest arts and cultures”—but its vision statement offers a little more insight into the … Continue reading Neck Rings at The Bowers Museum
Mask (go ge) at Harvard Art Museums
In October 2022, I visited Harvard Art Museums and came face to face with a Liberian mask on the third floor, tucked away in an alcove off the primary exhibition room. The wooden mask’s face was dark with wide white eyes, contorted with an open mouth and look of distress behind its protective glass. Beads, … Continue reading Mask (go ge) at Harvard Art Museums
Five Beauties Rising
Willie Cole’s evocative Five Beauties Rising is a set of five intaglio prints on paper depicting battered, broken, and discarded ironing boards, each with a woman’s name printed in capital letters below the image: Savannah, Dot, Fannie Mae, Queen, and Anna Mae. By bestowing a human name on an inanimate object, Cole invites the viewer … Continue reading Five Beauties Rising
Recontextualizing Historic House Museums through a Contemporary Lens
Historic house museums are often caught in a struggle between past and present, tasked with merging the historical and the contemporary to share relevant stories that resonate with modern audiences. While many historic house museums strive to incorporate histories beyond the apparent by delving into the labor required (often by enslaved people) to run the … Continue reading Recontextualizing Historic House Museums through a Contemporary Lens
The Activated Collection
Collections are an obvious cornerstone of museums: since museums were first established, they have revolved around objects as both a means of preserving histories and a method of storytelling to share those histories with a diverse audience. Even as institutions have focused more on their role as an educational venue rather than a repository for … Continue reading The Activated Collection
Art with an Opinion 