Museum Storytellers: Three Art Scholars Curate Exhibitions at the North Shore’s World-Class Museum

The word “curator” is often outrageously overused. We curate our bathroom wallpaper, our personal wardrobe, and our Instagram. But being a curator is a real job. And we know this very well at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, where 17 rockstar curators, all experts in their various collection areas, work to activate the museum in new and sometimes surprising ways. I spoke with three curators, all North Shore residents, who have been busy preparing some outstanding exhibitions.

PEM curator-at-large Lydia Peabody was able to bring a contemporary perspective to an exhibition about an extraordinary Black and Indigenous female artist. Edmonia Lewis began her artistic career during the Civil War. From a studio in Rome, she was free to sculpt neoclassical marble figures of her fellow Americans, freed slaves, and the daily lives of Indigenous people. As co-curator, Peabody’s research led to a great addition to Edmonia Lew – is: Said in Stone—the work of Gisella Torres, an American-born fan of Lewis, living in London. When Torres learned that she had often walked right by the grave of Edmonia Lewis in her London neighborhood cemetery, she set out to make a work called Looking For Edmonia. This included her photography, as well as a haunting video featuring Torres’s singing voice and the sound of her footsteps following the spirit of her hero on the streets of Rome. Seeing her artwork installed alongside that of her “muse” on the opening night at the exhibition at PEM, was emotional and deeply impactful for Torres.

As a curator, Peabody is good at forging these moments. She contributes her expertise at PEM in modern and contemporary art and helps acquire works by emerging artists, women artists, and artists of color. She helped curate the groundbreaking 2020 retrospective on Jacob Lawrence that led to lost paintings being rediscovered and the hit 2023 exhibition Gio Swaby-Fresh Up which featured large brilliantly colored textile portraits, often of Swaby’s family and friends. Locally, Peabody has contributed to the educational environment by teaching art history at Montserrat College of Art.

When asked what she wants visi – tors to take from PEM’s exhibition on Edmonia Lewis, Peabody said, “Her biography is extraordinary, but we didn’t want the story to eclipse the work itself. These sculptures are truly singular. She takes the language of neoclassical sculpture—a form historically used to depict power—and uses it to represent emancipated people, freedom and dignity. That’s radical.” PEM associate curator Lan Morgan has been part of PEM’s curatorial team since 2018 with interests that include cross-cultural exchange in the decorative arts, New England material culture, and early modern portraiture traditions. She has helped bring colorful contemporary Himalayan art to PEM, and is part of the team who reimagined PEM’s Native American and American gallery.

Morgan recently helped put a local lens on Salem just in time for the city’s 400th celebration. Beyond the Broom: Salem Short Films features mini documentaries made by local filmmakers Joe Cultrera, Perry Hallinan and a cadre of volunteers to show a vibrant, community-centered city beyond the witch kitsch and the tourist perspective. Just a few minutes in length, the hyper-local films were created to be screened before each global documentary shown annually at the Salem Film Fest. More than 50 shorts capture evolving neighborhoods, everyday moments and community traditions, from the bustle of breakfast counters to longstanding cultural gatherings such as the annual Black Picnic at Salem Willows. A new film, produced for the exhibition, looks at Salem’s Point neighborhood, its changing immigrant population and the tension between local residents and planned developments. Like each of the films, this one offers lesser-known stories that have shaped the city across generations.

“It has been such a wonderful experience to work on this project, which is deeply local and profoundly human, and with filmmakers who know this small city on a level that Salem’s many annual visitors rarely get to see,” said Morgan. “Each of these heartfelt films was made within a matter of days with wit, curiosity, and raw talent. They mean so much to residents, to see Salem reflected as a community rooted in creativity, resilience, and connection.” An entire meditation on design will take place in September when Noguchi: “I am not a designer” opens at PEM. Organized by the High Museum in Atlanta and coordinated by Ruthie Dibble, PEM’s Robert N. Shapiro curator of American decorative art, this exhibition looks at one of the 20th century’s most critically acclaimed and genre-blurring artists. Noguchi created a remarkable design legacy encompassing sculpture, lighting, furniture, ceramics, and de – signs for public spaces such as gardens, playgrounds and plazas—all of which were intentionally designed to improve the way people lived.

Dibble came to PEM in 2023 and specializes in American and British decorative arts from the 18th century to the present. Her curatorial work expands the field of American decorative arts by examining the global circulation of objects, the relationship between craft and identity and the role of craftspeople as agents of social change. At PEM, Dibble is working on developing interpretation for PEM’s historic houses. She oversees one of the country’s preeminent American decorative arts collections, featuring exceptional holdings of furniture, furnishings, and works of material culture. “Isamu Noguchi transformed how we understand the relationship between art, design, and daily life,” said Dibble. “As the nation’s oldest continuously operating and collecting museum, PEM is honored to present this major retrospective, which invites audiences to consider how creativity shapes our shared spaces and responds to the most pressing ideas of our moment.”

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