Animating the Kress Collection: Toward a Model of Shared Curatorial Authority and Engagement with Old Master Works

Abstract

In 2014, The El Paso Museum of Art (EPMA) embarked on a project to fuse Old Master paintings with digital animation called, "Animating the Kress Collection." The primary goal was to engage younger audiences, roughly defined as middle school through young adult, with the museum's Kress Collection of European Old Master artists, with supporting goals of making the works more accessible to K-12 teachers and students and encouraging the wider community to visit the collection. The project raised issues of navigating between object and experience in the curatoreducator divide common in art museums. We argue that digital animation tools provide a way of bridging that divide, but with the proviso that these tools can create new understandings of cultural assets. We further argue, therefore, that digital animation comprises a method of knowledge-making that allowed for student interns to put their own stamp on the paintings in the Kress, thus sharing authority with formal curatorial approaches. In the course of production, animated humor emerged as a key interpretive strategy for breaking down the wall between curatorial expertise and audience experience, allowing audiences to feel less intimidated by and more engaged with the artworks. Ultimately, because this project began under one museum director and ended under another, the initial goals fell by the wayside as they were not shared by the new administration. This project thus holds important lessons in the role of leadership and thoughtprovoking possibilities for expanding the curatorial vision in museums in general, and art museums in particular.