The Davison Art Center’s new curator, Clare Rogan, started her position on Valentine’s Day. She is the Center’s fifth curator since its opening in 1952, and she will oversee the 20,000 objects contained in the collection.
“I think I have to say that I was familiar with the reputation of the Davision Art Center before I arrived,” Rogan said. “Now that I’ve been here a week, I’ve been finding even more within this incredible collection.”
Rogan comes to Wesleyan from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where she was the Assistant Curator for Prints, Drawings and Photographs at the school’s Museum of Art until earlier this year.
She brings with her a love and knowledge of prints, and a strong background that reflects her expansive interests.
Born in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England, Rogan’s family relocated to Minnesota when she was 12. As an undergraduate at Princeton, she was an honors major in the Department of Art and Archeology. She received her M.A. from Brown and is currently completing work on her doctorate there. Her dissertation focuses on the representation of the lesbian and homoeroticism in early 20th-century German art.
Rogan holds respect for the history of the Davison Art Center, which was established by George W. Davison, (class of 1892) and his wife Harriet. Rogan hopes to expand on the collection’s storied legacy through carefully-selected acquisitions.
“It is one of the top two or three print collections at a university in the United States,” Rogan said. “My goal is to build on this collection that has such great strengths. There is an enormous amount of potential. There are points where I can fill in gaps in the collection. I must keep an eye out for crucial prints, as far back as the fifteenth century, that could fill gaps in the ‘story’ of Davison’s collection.”
Conveying a seamless “story” is one of Rogan’s objectives for future exhibitions.
“I don’t look to just exhibit a work but to tell the story of its creation, its use and its display,” she said.
Indeed, her most recent exhibition at RISD demonstrated Rogan’s ability to tell a thought-provoking, cohesive story. Entitled “Dreams + Nightmares: German Graphic Arts, 1900-1933,” the show highlighted the visions, dreams and nightmares experienced by two generations of artists.
“[My aim] was to show how artists reacted to moments of extreme turmoil and change in Germany,” she said.
While she is still mulling over ideas for the fall, Rogan is looking forward to March 29, when “A Passion for Prints: The Davison Legacy” will debut. The show is curated by Jesse Feiman ’05 and Dan Zolli ’07.
“It will be a marvelous way to see the highlights of the collection, and really show its incredible strengths,” Rogan said.
Feiman and Zolli have been working on the show since the fall under the direction of interim curator Ellen G. D’Oench. They are currently working closely with Rogan to put the finishing touches on the exhibition.
“Clare is a wealth of information—in that respect she is exciting to work with,” Zolli said. “She is incredibly friendly and helpful.”
“The Davison is a facility and resource, and a lot of people on campus don’t even know we have it,” Feiman said. “The collection ranges from the beginning of prints to contemporary works.”
Expanding the collection’s contemporary holdings is another target Rogan has set.
Continuing a Davison tradition, Rogan’s first acquisition embodies some of the excitement and freshness she hopes to bring to the collection. The untitled print by Tara Donovan was made by blowing bubbles in a cup of etching acid. The bubbles were transferred intact to the surface of the printing plate, where they rested until they popped. The plate was inked and printed twice, slightly off-register.
“It’s a fun, innovative piece by a young artist, and a wonderful example of contemporary work,” Rogan said.
Finally, Rogan has been impressed by the amount of student involvement at Wesleyan. “There is an incredible involvement and access that students have to Davison, and it’s something I’d like to continue,” Rogan said. “The students here seem to be free thinkers and independent thinkers, and it serves them well in [their understanding] of visual material.”
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