About The Fralin

About The Fralin

Side front view of Fralin building with sunlight shining through columns

A MESSAGE FROM OUR INTERIM CO-DIRECTORS

Dear Members and Friends,

There is nothing in this world more certain than change, and the next few months at The Fralin will reflect this adage more profoundly than in years past. We are excited to announce the arrival this January of our new J. Sanford Miller Family Director, Karen Milbourne, who comes to us from the Smithsonian Museum of African Art where she spent more than fifteen years as a curator and a scholar. Many of our visitors and supporters will have a chance to engage with her over the coming spring at upcoming events. Be on the lookout for more information on those in the New Year! 

After four successful years as Curator of Exhibitions here at The Fralin, Laura Minton accepted a position in Texas this past fall. Laura was a great colleague and a wonderful collaborator; she is sorely missed. We are happy to announce that we have begun a national search for a new senior curator who will lead the Curatorial Department, strategize for our growing museum, and build an ambitious exhibition program.  

In 2019, The Fralin committed itself to dedicating at least fifty percent of our exhibitions to historically underrepresented art and artists. We define underrepresented artists broadly—to include those with diverse racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, Indigenous, disability, ability, socioeconomic, geographic, religious, and/or age identities. This Spring, The Fralin will become the first museum with a global collection to devote the vast majority of its gallery space to Indigenous art, a milestone which we want to acknowledge and celebrate.

We are thrilled to be able to accomplish this with the opening of two exciting and dynamic exhibitions. After the success of The Inside World, we are partnering once again with our sister institution, the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection. This February, we are opening the Kluge-Ruhe’s renowned exhibition, Madayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala, curated by a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous curators led by Djambawa Marawili and Wukun Wanambi. As part of Madayin, a delegation of six Yolŋu artists and knowledge holders will be visiting The Fralin and interacting with our community to talk about this exhibition and their artistic and cultural practice.

Also on view will be Voices of Connection: Garamut Slit Drums of New Guinea, an exhibition curated by Lise Dobrin, professor of anthropology and M. Jordan Love, interim co-director and the Carol R. Angle academic curator, in consultation with Andrew Moutu, Ph.D., the former director of the National Museum & Art Gallery in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. This exhibition also involved UVA students who Professor Dobrin taught last spring in her class, Curating Culture!

Finally, we are also excited to celebrate a milestone for our school outreach efforts this March, as every single third grade class in Albemarle County will visit the museum for a field trip to see these two exciting exhibitions! We look forward to welcoming you back to the galleries, and we want to thank you all for your continued support as we hand the director baton off to Karen Milbourne in late January. 

PS – Be sure to save the date for our 2024 Fashion as Art program on April 16-20th!   

Yours Sincerely,

M. Jordan Love
Carol R. Angle Academic Curator
Co-Interim Director

Hunter Hollins
Chief Operating Officer
Co-Interim Director