Karen Moss, Curator, Educator, Writer Co-curator of State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970
About the Arts Dean's Lecture Series:
This presentation is part of the series of free public lectures in the 2012 Arts Dean's Lecture Series entitled "Reshaping the Museum: Creating New Knowledge, Engaging the Mind" (part of the course HAVC/ART 007: "Issues in the Arts," taught by Associate Professor and Patricia & Rowland Rebele Chair in History of Art and Visual Culture, Elisabeth Cameron). Arts Dean David Yager has selected the speakers, all noted for their unique ability to bridge museum practices and for creating new knowledge within their professional career paths. The public is cordially invited. Admission is free. (Parking $3.)
Sponsored by the UCSC Division of the Arts and the UCSC Art Department and History of Art and Visual Culture Department.
All eight lectures in the series are on Thursday evenings at 6:00 p.m. through May 31 in the Media Theater. (The Media Theater is the lecture hall located next to the traffic circle in front of the Mainstage Theater at UCSC.)
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Art historian, curator and educator Karen Moss has worked in museums and academic positions since 1980. Currently she is Adjunct Curator at Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) where she recently curated, State of Mind: New Art from California Circa 1970, a major exhibition of conceptual art and other experimental practices, part of Pacific Standard Time, the Getty Foundation’s wide initiative about the art history of Southern California, 1945 – 1985. The exhibition is now on view at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and in the fall will begin a national tour.
Previously, Moss was OCMA’s Deputy Director of Exhibitions and Programs and Curator of Collection (2005-2010) Moss curated numerous artists projects, exhibitions, and public programs including: 15 Minutes of Fame: Portraits from Ansel Adams to Andy Warhol (2010) and New Art for A New Century: Contemporary Acquisitions, 2000 – 2010; Illumination: The Paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe, Agnes Pelton, Agnes Martin and Florence Pierce (2009); Disorderly Conduct: Recent Art in Tumultuous Times (2008) and Art Since the 1960s: California Experiments (2007-08). Moss was also co-curator and catalogue essayist for the 2006 California Biennial and organized artists’ residencies, curated public programs and wrote catalogue texts for the biennials in 2008 and 2010.
Prior to OCMA, Moss was Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs at San Francisco Art Institute (1999-2004) Director of Education and Community Programs at the Walker Art Center (1995-1999) and Director of Programs at the Santa Monica Museum of Art (1989-1993). Earlier in her career she was an Assistant Curator at MOCA, Los Angeles (1985-87) and attended Whitney Independent Study Program in Art History and Museum Studies. She has a B.A. in studio art and art history from U.C. Santa Cruz, and did her graduate work in art history at both U.C. Berkeley and University of Southern California M.A., PhD (ABD).
For twenty-five years Moss has taught art history and critical theory at art schools and universities. Currently, Moss is the Acting Chair of the Graduate Public Practice Program at Otis College of Art and Design and Faculty in the M.A. Program Curating Art in the Public Sphere at the USC Roski School of Fine Arts.