New Chief Curator At The Aldrich In Ridgefield Is Raising Expectations

RIDGEFIELD, CT — One week before Amy Smith-Stewart was promoted to chief curator at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum last month, she had experienced still another career milestone.

She had taken one of the museum's signature brave exhibitions, and found a way to make it even more courageous.

"52 Artists: A Feminist Milestone" opened at The Aldrich on June 6 and is on view through Jan. 8, 2023. The show revisits the historic exhibition "Twenty Six Contemporary Women Artists," presented at The Aldrich in 1971, and updates it with a new roster of 26 female identifying and nonbinary emerging artists. The new exhibit tracks the evolution of feminist art practices over the past half-century.

This finding new artists, discovering new contexts, raising new expectation bars, is what contemporary art curators do. Because The Aldrich makes a point of working with "emerging artists," and is frequently the site of their first exhibition, the gig is not without its share of doubt and uncertainty.

"When you work with an institution that has a long history of being artist-centric, it's an exciting place to work as a curator," the curator told Patch.

See Also: Ridgefield Artist Brings Her Work To Where People Live, Work & Walk

Smith-Stewart began her career as a curatorial assistant at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, NY, one of the largest institutions in the United States dedicated to contemporary art. In 2013, she joined The Aldrich as a curator. Since then, she has organized 42 exhibitions and projects at the museum.

A lot has changed in her business since she started out. When Smith-Stewart first became a professional curator, she said most people didn't know what the word meant. Now, thanks, to its overuse and misuse to describe the work of "content producers" and others on the internet, everyone believes they understand the job.

"Oh, 'curated boutique!' 'Curated website!' she laughed. "I feel it is really on trend."

The big difference between her work and the work of "internet curators" and most other museum curators, is that she is working with the artists to determine what, and when, to exhibit.

"The timing is very important," the curator said, particularly at The Aldrich, where the exhibits are often an artist's Big Time debut.

Perhaps most importantly, The Aldrich takes care of those emerging artists. Next year, the museum will be launching an artist honorarium policy.

"Their labor should be supported," Smith-Stewart said. "And I think more and more institutions are acknowledging that."

Considering how The Aldrich is broadening the definition of museum art, that could lead to a lot of people with their hand out. Smith-Stewart said the museum has a commitment to more expansive public programming beyond traditional and visual art. Poets, musicians and choreographers all stand to benefit as The Aldrich chief curator begins to cast a wider net.

"I think that's something that makes sense in a town like Ridgefield which has such a dynamic culture ... and a craving for that content," she said.

COVID-19 fundamentally re-shaped the museum's outlook and perspective, as COVID-19 has a flair for doing. In the case of The Aldrich, the net effect was positive.

"In the pandemic, we realized that museums are really, really important to people," Smith-Stewart said. "They're really meeting places. They're inspirational places. And they're intergenerational places."

The Aldrich was one of the first institutions, cultural or otherwise, to reopen its doors to the public, in June 2020. The curator said it became a magnet for many out-of-towners suffering beneath the lockdown yoke.

"I think they were taking a lot of solace in being able to have a safe place to look at art."

The museum's not too close/not too far proximity with The Big Apple not only rings the museum's cash register regularly, but also favorably affects the work of the artists creating for an Aldrich exhibit, according to Smith-Stewart.

"Artists have told me that they feel a little bolder in what they're going to do... not being in the glare of the spotlight of New York City, they can take more risks and experiment more freely."

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is located at 258 Main Street in Ridgefield.