Wexner Center for the Arts: Visit: Curatorial Staff Promotions And Changes

Wex announces curatorial staff promotions and changes

For immediate release: November 4, 2010

Columbus, OH—The Wexner Center is pleased to announce several significant curatorial staff changes and promotions. Notes Wexner Center Director Sherri Geldin, “On the eve of the Wexner Center’s 21st anniversary, we are making some significant changes in our staff structure as it relates to artistic programming, particularly in the areas of exhibitions and film/video. All of these repositionings reflect exceptional performance—individually and collectively—in advancing the center’s mission and strategic goals.”

• Bill Horrigan, who began his tenure several months before the center opened in 1989 and built the center’s Film/Video program into one of the most distinguished and respected of its kind, now moves into the newly created position Curator-at-Large. As such, his portfolio will include exhibitions, publications, and trans-disciplinary undertakings throughout the center. His “at-large” status will allow the Wex to even further benefit from Horrigan’s considerable professional depth, expertise, and network of artists, scholars, curators, and writers in various fields. In addition to his work in film, Horrigan is a nationally known exhibition curator who has organized exhibitions featuring such artists as William Kentridge, Shirin Neshat, Adi Nes, Johan van der Keuken, and others; he curated two major exhibitions featuring the work of French artist Chris Marker, both of which have toured the globe.

• After 16 years in the film department, David Filipi has been promoted to Director of Film/Video. Filipi has been instrumental in the ever-growing impact of the center’s film program, which encompasses roughly 175 screenings per year (including international, documentary, and repertory film screenings), filmmaker visits, retrospectives showcasing such directors as Claire Denis and Olivier Assayas, popular summer film series and outdoor screenings, student-oriented film events, and the Wexner Center’s recent expansion into the Gateway Film Center. In his new role, he will manage the entire department, which also includes the newly named Film/Video Studio Program (formerly Art & Technology), located in the Wexner Center.

• Jennifer Lange has been promoted to Curator of the Film/Video Studio Program. For this newly named program (previously Art & Technology), Lange selects and orchestrates year-round residencies for film- and video-makers to do post-production work with the support of Wexner Center assets—hardware, software, and professional expertise provided by our video editors and others on staff. The Film/Video Studio Program is located in the Wexner Center, and has supported the work of more than 300 artists over the years. Lange will also continue to program The Box video space, featuring work by video artists around the globe, on a monthly basis.

• Chris Stults, who has been with the Wexner Center eight years, has been promoted from Assistant Curator to Associate Curator of Film/Video in recognition of his expanding responsibilities over the last few years and his increasing contributions to the center’s film program and profile. These include co-conceiving the Zoom Family Film Festival and more recently assuming primary responsibility for programming the Wex at Gateway. Stults recently published an in-depth article on collage animator and Wexner Center Residency Award artist Lewis Klahr this past spring in the national magazine Film Comment.

• Christopher Bedford, who arrived at the Wexner Center from Los Angeles about two years ago, has been promoted to the position of Chief Curator of Exhibitions. Bedford curated the suite of exhibitions Six Solos, opening November 9 (with opening events this weekend), for the 21st anniversary season. He also curated the Mark Bradford exhibition, the first survey of the Los Angeles artist’s work, which just wrapped up its premiere showing at the Wexner Center and now embarks on tour to four major museums across the country. In addition, he organized the winter 2010 exhibition Hard Targets, a multimedia and wide-ranging look at the intersection of sports and art.