kentuckykernel Monday, February 19, 2018
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LINKING PAST AND PRESENT By Madison Rexroat news@kykernel.com
It’s a Thursday morning and Janie Welker, curator of the UK Art Museum, is staring at the floors.
Each block in the 70s-era floors of the museum was placed individually, carefully taking into account the grain pattern of the wood so that every few blocks are mirror images of each other.
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ARDEN BARNES I STAFF
ust a few minutes earlier, she and the museum’s preparator, Alan Rideout, were poring over the frames – even more than the artwork – of Water Ways, the new exhibition upstairs curated from the museum’s permanent collection. Part textbook and part dignitary, Welker can talk about anything. With as much thought and precision as the men who meticulously installed the museum’s floors 40 years ago, Welker has planned the museum’s exhibitions for the past 13 years. Her anniversary at the museum was in January. “There’s no typical day,” Welker said. She’s right. It seems now, more than
ever, the museum, the community and the country are recognizing the immense change in our perceptions of gender and power. With three gender-related shows – Modern Women, Looking at Men and Edward Melcarth: Points of View – currently on display, it’s clear that Welker and the museum aren’t letting the history and value of these discussions go unnoticed. “As a museum, we are setting ourselves up as a center for discussion for a lot of ideas and for museums to stay relevant, they need to do that,” Welker said. “It’s important to have artists who are engaging
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