Special
Features / October 2007
Cultural Curator Named
 Barbara Racker
|
The Clay Center, in Charleston, West Virginia, just welcomed a new curator. Barbara Racker started her new job in West Virginia in early August. Barbara was born in Germany, was raised in New Orleans, started her first job in Colorado, moved west to Washington State and Montana, then back east to New York and is now with us in West Virginia.
After seeing the announcement about the curator opening at The Clay Center, Barbara wanted to bring her 18 years of experience to help the growth of the Center. Her family is still in New York and will move here at a later time. Barbara commented that one of the things she has discovered is “the people in West Virginia are very friendly and willing to help in any way they can.”
As curator, Barbara is in charge of all of the art exhibits at The Clay Center. She chooses, installs and organizes the entire shows. The Center has a movable wall system and high ceiling that allows the display of large 2-D or 3-D artworks. The art gallery has sophisticated climate control and lighting systems. Along with the striking interior architecture complemented by dramatic views from the three-story atrium, the Center is one of West Virginia’s cultural centers. The Clay Center has a 160 member Collector’s Club who fund and make final decisions on the Center’s collections. The Collector Club members travel throughout the year to major galleries to view art pieces.
Barbara says that “there are challenges in the visual arts. Still today, there seems to be more male artists then female. The Clay Center wants to promote gender equality in the art community. Women need to help and support female artists. Sometimes it may just be encouraging the artist, helping sponsor the artist, or supporting The Clay Center.”
The Clay Center has names like Bill Cosby, Ricky Skaggs, Lily Tomlin, Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill, Natalie Cole and many more in the Center’s Maier Foundation Performance Hall. Extraordinary performances, such as Montana Repertory’s Steel Magnolias, Capitol Steps and Second City have delighted audiences.
The Clay Center's Avampato Discovery Museum houses two floors of hands-on science exhibits featuring more than 12,000 square feet of nonstop fun.
The Clay Center enhances the region's "quality of life" and The Clay Center includes the Maier Foundation Performance Hall, a 1,883 seat theater with exceptional acoustics and sight lines, the Walker Theater, a black-box theater which can accommodate between 150 - 200 people depending upon the set-up. The state-of-the-art Avampato Discovery Museum features two floors of interactive science exhibits, an art gallery featuring selections from the Museum's Permanent Collections and traveling exhibitions, The ElectricSky™ Theater which presents planetarium shows and large format films on its giant domed screen, Douglas V. Reynolds Intermezzo Cafe, which offers food for hungry visitors during the day and before selected performances, and the BB&T Little Shop of Wonders Gift Shop.
The Clay Center enriches the lives of all West Virginians. Barbara reminds women that “The Center has openings for all different types of volunteers”.
Copyright © 2001-2009 A Woman's View. All rights reserved.
Top • Home • Subscribe • Advertise • Submit • Distribution • Contact
Support Our Advertisers • Organization Resources • Women Owned Business
Organization Resource List • Women Owned Businesses • Support Our Advertisers
Maintained by TEABROOKE
Website Design | SEO | Social Media Consulting
Related Sites | XMLSiteMap | Web Portal
Landing Zone SEO - Website | Search | Usability | Results | Goodness
Send an Email About This Article