AKG - Key Persons
Aaron Ott has been the Curator of Public Art since the Public Art Initiative began in 2013, overseeing more than 40 public art projects, installations, and exhibitions. Ott champions work that engages its audience and is responsive to its space. He envisions public art as a holistic enterprise, from conception to installation. Making art is an opportunity to build relationships with local partners, to foster the talents of makers of all kinds, and to create beautiful and provocative places where people can come together.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Facilities Planning & Management Team
- Cleaner
The Information Technology Department is responsible for the architecture, hardware, software, and networking of computers in the museum. The department is involved in providing the infrastructure for automation and the governance for the use of the network and operating systems. Information Technology professionals working in this department perform a number of duties to ensure that employees have full access to the computer systems.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Officers Team
- President
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- Collections Digitization Specialist / Information Technology
The Imaging and Visual Resources Department is responsible for the digitization, care, and management of the museum's ever-growing Digital Assets Collection. The primary function of the department is to create, organize, interpret, present, and archive preservation-grade, digital assets with appropriate and accurate metadata for easy retrieval and distribution. The digitized and born-digital content produced and/or managed by this team represent the history of the museum and document its Fine Art, Archives, and other collections, exhibitions, events, buildings, staff, and visitors. In collaboration with staff, external researchers, and colleagues from other museums, the department creates and distributes digital content worldwide for reproduction online and in print.
Now an Associate Curator, Andrea Alvarez has served on the curatorial team at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum since she joined as a Curatorial Fellow in 2017. In her time at the museum, her curatorial projects have included organizing Comunidades Visibles: The Materiality of Migration (2021) and The Swindle: Art Between Seeing and Believing (2018); and co-organizing the Buffalo AKG's presentation of We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-85 (2018).
From 2014 to 2017, Alvarez was Director of Exhibitions at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts, where she organized student, faculty, and alumni exhibitions, created interdisciplinary activities and programs, and taught Arts cross-disciplinary courses. She has previously held positions at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia, and Fundación Guayasamín, in Quito, Ecuador.
Alvarez received her PhD from the Department of Art History at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2020, where she previously earned her Master's degree. She received her bachelor's degree in Art and Art History from the College of William and Mary.
Alvarez's curatorial focus is on contemporary art, with a particular interest in the work of Latinx and Latin American artists.
Job Titles:
- Director of Human Resources
Andrea Harden, SPHR, is the Director of Human Resources at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and has more than twenty years of senior-level management and consulting experience in the areas of training and development, employee relations, harassment prevention, diversity and inclusion, change management, and effective communication.
She is a key partner in supporting museum leadership, with a focus on employee engagement, relationship management, and Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA). Harden is responsible for the development and administration of various plans and procedures that guide and support museum staff, including recruitment, retention, performance management, development, and compliance.
Harden collaborates with the museum's director and other staff to understand, refine, and implement the museum's strategic plan. She works with the Buffalo AKG's Leadership Team and Department Heads to ensure alignment of departmental and individual goals and objectives with the broader institutional plan, which includes coordinating IDEA processes, programs, and initiatives in collaboration with other Leadership Team members, ensuring the integration and measurability of IDEA in all aspects of museum operations alongside institutional goals, and making changes and updates as needed to ensure compliance with local, state, and federal employment laws and regulations and best practices for museums.
Prior to joining the Buffalo AKG, Harden held management positions with Praxair Inc., a Fortune 500 international company, and Definity Health (now UnitedHealthcare Group, Inc.). As an independent HR consultant, Harden leveraged her experience to bring insight, perspective, and experience in all aspects of human resources to her various clients. Her work with senior leaders as a strategic advisor enabled her to present human capital solutions and offer direction on business strategy. Her strength has been and continues to be her ability to effectively support, strengthen, and revitalize organizations to help them attract, retain, and develop the right talent. She was also the owner and lead facilitator of Harden Training Partners, focusing on facilitating and leading meaningful conversations around diversity and inclusion.
Harden completed her MBA with a concentration in Human Resources at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She also holds a top-level, nationally recognized certification of Senior Professional in Human Resources from the HR Certification Institute and is a certified trainer through Development Dimensions International (DDI®) and a Certified Organizational Engineer for I-OPT® Assessment Tools. Harden was the co-chair of the 2009 class of Leadership Buffalo and is a member of the 2019 inaugural cohort of the Karen Lee Spaulding Oishei Fellowship for Leaders of Color.
Job Titles:
- Manager of Marketing and Media Relations
The Communications Department develops and disseminates information about the museum's identity, operations, and strategic goals to the media and the general public. The department promotes exhibitions, events, donations, research initiatives, staff members, and the museum's campus development and expansion project through strategic publicity campaigns, media events, marketing, advertising, and more.
Annette Daniels Taylor, artist Heather Hart, Curator of Public Art Aaron Ott, and artist Edra Soto at the Members' and Neighbors' Opening of Open House: Domestic Thresholds by Heather Hart, Edra Soto, and Rodney Taylor on January 15, 2020. Photo: Tom Loonan for Buffalo AKG Art Museum
Job Titles:
- Membership Engagement Coordinator
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- Member of the Facilities Planning & Management Team
- Stationary Engineer
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- Manager of Interpretation & Docents
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- Director of Information Technology
Weaving together whimsical and fantastical narratives, Bunnie Reiss is a natural storyteller seeking to create work inspired by and filled with magic, imagination, and a love of nature. Reiss spent much of her career in the Bay Area before recently moving to Los Angeles. Since relocating, Reiss has inaugurated more than 14 mural projects in the area. "Painting murals is my favorite thing to do," says the artist.
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- Manager of Government & Foundation Relations
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- Associate, Executive Offices
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- Director
- Member of the Officers Team
- Vice - President
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- Delaware North Director of Learning & Creativity
Charlie Garling is the Buffalo AKG's inaugural Delaware North Director of Learning & Creativity. Garling comes to the museum with twenty years of experience leading learner-centered creative practices. He oversees the development of innovative, playful, and engaging educational offerings, including hands-on learning, interpretive planning, gallery tours, artmaking, and accessible and meaningful experiences for the public.
A passionate advocate for collaborative creativity, he is motivated by the belief that individual and communal experiences with art act as heuristic vehicles for community engagement, personal wellness, and the exploration and expression of identity.
Garling joined the Buffalo AKG after two decades at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), where he was the museum's first Director of Studio Programs. In this role, he set the vision for the DIA's creative practices, fostered strategic partnerships with organizations, businesses, and municipalities, and oversaw a broad array of artmaking programs-within the museum and throughout southeast Michigan, serving more than 45,000 participants annually. He devised and administered the museum's community-focused public art program and led a team of artists and educators who experimented with visitor-centered artmaking experiences created with and for diverse audiences of all ages and abilities.
Prior to his leadership at the DIA, Garling worked for thirteen years as an art teacher for Dearborn Public Schools, the last five at a Title 1 school with a student body of seven hundred English language learners. He served his colleagues as a Union Representative for the Dearborn Federation of Teachers, chaired the Art Advocacy Committee, and represented the district in the Galileo Leadership Program-Education Leadership Cohort.
Garling earned his BFA in Art Education with a minor in Visual Arts and his MA in Curriculum and Instruction at Michigan State University.
Job Titles:
- Head of Visitor Experience
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- Assistant Treasurer
- Director
- Member of the Officers Team
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- Member of the Facilities Planning & Management Team
- Facilities Representative
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- Community Engagement Manager
The Human Resources Department is a key partner in supporting museum leadership, with a focus on employee engagement; relationship management; and Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion (DEAI). Human Resources is responsible for the development and administration of various plans and procedures that guide and support museum staff, including recruitment, retention, performance management, development, and compliance.
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- Executive Assistant to the Director
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- Accounts Payable Representative
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- Charles Balbach Chief Curator
Dr. Cathleen Chaffee joined the Buffalo AKG Art Museum in January 2014 and has been Chief Curator since September 2017.
At the Buffalo AKG, Chaffee is currently preparing touring retrospective exhibitions dedicated to Stanley Whitney (2024) and to Marisol (2023-24). She is the co-organizer of the exhibition Stanley Whitney: The Italian Paintings (April 23-November 27, 2022), concurrent with the Venice Biennale.
During her tenure at the museum, Chaffee has organized exhibitions and authored accompanying publications for projects including Introducing Tony Conrad: A Retrospective (2018), Joe Bradley (2017), Shade: Clyfford Still / Mark Bradford (2016), Erin Shirreff, Eija-Liisa Ahtila: Ecologies of Drama (2015-16), and Overtime: The Art of Work (2015), among others. She co-organized Anthony McCall: Dark Rooms, Solid Light (2019), Looking at Tomorrow: Light and Language from The Panza Collection, 1967-1990, Screen Play: Life in an Animated World. In the spirit of the Buffalo AKG's founding mission to support the work of contemporary artists, many of the exhibitions curated by Chaffee have marked artists' first US museum surveys and retrospectives.
Chaffee's books and essays have addressed the work of Bas Jan Ader, Richard Artschwager, Carol Bove, Mark Bradford, Marcel Broodthaers, Tony Conrad, Hanne Darboven, Gabriel Kuri, Eric N. Mack, and Joëlle Tuerlinckx, among many others. Her writing has been published in magazines such as Artforum, Frieze, Contemporary, Mousse, and Manifesta Journal. Chaffee has lectured widely on contemporary art and artists as well as topics including language and duration in minimal and conceptual art, the representation of labor in postwar art, artist-curated exhibitions, and the home and "home-like" in art after Duchamp.
Chaffee was Horace W. Goldsmith Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Yale University Art Gallery from 2010 to 2014 and previously held curatorial positions at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Chaffee received her PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and was awarded a 2008 Fulbright Fellowship to Belgium to complete research for her dissertation, Décors: Marcel Broodthaers's Late Exhibition Practice 1974-75. She received her MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. In 2018, Chaffee was the VIA Art Fund's Curatorial Fellow.
Job Titles:
- As Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director
- Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director
As Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director Janne Sirén often says, we work in the company of rock stars.
Dr. Janne Sirén joined the Buffalo AKG Art Museum as the Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director in April 2013. Over the course of a decade of his leadership, the museum has embarked upon the most significant campus expansion and development project in its 160-year history, which will culminate in the opening in spring 2023 of the new Buffalo AKG Art Museum, designed by OMA/Shohei Shigematsu. Under Sirén's stewardship, the museum has raised nearly $230 million to fund the construction of the renewed and expanded campus, the largest cultural fundraising campaign in the history of Western New York.
A passionate advocate for the active role of the museum and the arts in shaping and supporting diverse communities, Sirén launched the museum's pioneering Public Art Initiative in 2013. This innovative partnership between the museum, local government bodies, and private individuals and businesses has been hailed as a national model for museums and their communities to sustainably create and install public art and has generated more than forty public artworks across Western New York.
Over the course of his tenure, Sirén has initiated several major exhibitions at the museum, including We the People: New Art from the Collection (2018-19); Out of Sight! Art of the Senses (2017-18); Picasso: The Artist and His Models (2016-17); Monet and the Impressionist Revolution, 1860-1910 (2015-16); and Anselm Kiefer: Beyond Landscape (2013-14). In 2022, along with Gabriella Belli, Director of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, Sirén co-organized Anselm Kiefer: Questi scritti, quando verrano bruciati, daranno finalmente un po' di luce, a new exhibition of Kiefer's work in Venice's Palazzo Ducale.
Prior to joining the Buffalo AKG, Sirén served as Director of Finland's Helsinki Art Museum-one of the largest cultural institutions in the Nordic region-overseeing an active program of exhibitions, acquisitions, and museum development. In this role, he was a member of Helsinki's Tourism Advancement Group, representing the cultural and museum field and helping to strengthen the tourism industry in Helsinki while identifying strategic principles for future development. Sirén served as Director of the Tampere Art Museum in southern Finland from 2004 to 2007. He has worked in the Department of Art History at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, teaching courses in modern and contemporary art, aesthetics, museology, and critical theory. Sirén received his PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University in 2001.
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- Image Courtesy of the Albright - Knox Art Gallery Digital Assets Collection and Archives, Buffalo, New York
After graduating from Cornell University in 1878, Edward B. Green moved to Buffalo and, in 1884, formed a partnership with William S. Wicks. Green & Wicks quickly became one of the most prolific architecture firms working in Western New York and Southern Ontario. In Buffalo, their designs notably include the Market Arcade Building, Main Street, 1892; Buffalo Savings Bank, 1901; and the Albright Art Gallery, 1905.
One of Green's most devoted clients was John J. Albright, who first commissioned Green & Wicks around 1890 to design a library in Scranton, Pennsylvania, as a memorial for Albright's father. In 1904, Green & Wicks were brought in to design a number of buildings for the newly formed Ontario Power Company, where Albright was president. Around the same time, Albright and the other directors of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy selected Green & Wicks as architects for the institution's first permanent home. Green would stay involved with the museum beyond the structure's completion, becoming a long-serving member of its Board and serving as Board president in 1915.
The success of Green & Wicks's neoclassical design for the Albright Art Gallery led to later commissions for two museums in Ohio: the Toldeo Museum of Art in 1912 and the Dayton Art Institute in 1930.
Job Titles:
- Visitor Experience & Volunteer Manager
The Visitor Experience Department ensures that all guests are met with a welcoming and dynamic experience. The team is comprised of front desk representatives, gallery attendants, and volunteers who contribute to aspects of daily operations, including admissions, program registrations, group tours, membership support, general inquiries, exhibition engagement, and more. A core value of the Visitor Experience team is radical hospitality and supporting open dialogue with guests. The team offers seamless service through their understanding of database and ticketing technology, knowledge of the museum's collection and exhibitions, supportive security practices, and ability to collaborate with staff across all departments.
Job Titles:
- Public Art Project Coordinator
Eric Jones joined the Buffalo AKG Art Museum in 2015 as Public Art Project Coordinator. His collaboration on Public Art Initiative projects with the Curator of Public Art and fellow Coordinator have redefined the aesthetic landscape in Western New York. His list of completed projects include internationally renowned artists and muralists such as Hervé Tullet, Eduardo Kobra, Louise "Ouizi" Jones, and Tavar Zawacki, in addition to numerous other national, regional, and locally recognized artists. Jones's efforts during the Buffalo AKG's campus development and expansion project helped activate Albright-Knox Northland to continue engaging community audiences.
Jones previously worked in community art center outreach programs in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Richmond, Virginia, where he developed and initiated city-wide arts and culture programming. He also held a middle-school art teacher position before moving to Buffalo. Jones received his BFA in Art Education from Virginia Commonwealth University and upholds an active studio practice.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Officers Team
- Secretary
The Preservation and Safety Department is responsible for monitoring the safety of the museum's staff, guests, and assets. Members of the Preservation and Safety team are on hand 24 hours a day, seven days a week, patrolling and observing to ensure that the facilities and artworks are protected from potential hazards, coordinating with emergency services in crisis situations to provide information and assistance, and acting as a front-line point of contact with guests.
Job Titles:
- Curator - at - Large & Curator, Nordic Art and Culture Initiative
- Curator - at - Large, Curator of the Nordic Art & Culture Initiative
Helga Christoffersen joined the Buffalo AKG Art Museum in 2020 as Curator-at-Large & Curator, Nordic Art and Culture Initiative, a curatorial program of cultural and artistic exchange that fosters inspired collaborations between creative leaders in the Nordic region and North America.
From 2019 to 2020, Christoffersen was the Executive Director of Art Hub Copenhagen, prior to which she served as Assistant and Associate Curator at the New Museum in New York from 2013 to 2019 and as Artistic Organizer of the 55th Venice Biennale.
At the New Museum, she was a member of the curatorial team for Marta Minujin: Menesunda Reloaded (2019); Nari Ward: We the People (2019); Thomas Bayrle: Playtime (2018); Carol Rama: Antibodies (2017); Pipilotti Rist: Pixel Forest (2016); Cheng Ran: Diary of a Madman (2016); The Keeper (2016); Nicole Eisenman: Al-ugh-ories (2016); the third New Museum Triennial, Surround Audience (2015); and Here and Elsewhere (2014). She also organized solo exhibitions of Daiga Grantina (2020), Adelita Husni-Bey (2019), Marianna Simnett (2018), Alexandra Pirici (2018), Petrit Halilaj (2017), Cally Spooner (2016), Eva Papamargariti (2016), Leonor Antunes (2015), Lili Reynaud-Dewar (2014), David Horvitz (2014), and Hannah Sawtell (2014). She was the co-organizer of The Equilibrists, a survey of a younger generation of contemporary Greek artists presented at The Benaki Museum, Athens (2016) in collaboration with the New Museum.
Christoffersen holds a BA in Art History from the University of Copenhagen (2008) and an MA in Curatorial Practice from the Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS), Bard College, New York (2012) and is currently working on her PhD from Aarhus University, supported by a grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation. She has taught as visiting faculty at Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, and MA Curating, Aarhus University.
Holly E. Hughes is Godin-Spaulding Senior Curator for the Collection at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, with more than twenty years of experience organizing exhibitions and working with artists on acquisitions and site-specific installations.
During her career at the Buffalo AKG, Hughes has steered more than 300 acquisitions and organized numerous major exhibitions, including Humble and Human: An Exhibition in Honor of Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. (2019), Giant Steps: Artists and the 1960s (2018), Picasso: The Artist and His Models (2016-17), Monet and the Impressionist Revolution, 1860-1910 (2015-16), with Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director Janne Sirén, Screen Play: Life in an Animated World (2015), with Deputy Director Joe Lin-Hill and Chief Curator Cathleen Chaffee. Currently, Hughes is working on a comprehensive reinstallation of the Buffalo AKG's collection for the museum's opening in the first half of 2023.
Past projects with the Buffalo AKG include Spencer Tunick's installation at Buffalo's Central Terminal and the exhibitions Bodily Space: New Obsessions in Figurative Sculpture, Op Art Revisited: Selections from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Videosphere: A New Generation, Sweet Dreams, Baby! Life of Pop, London to Warhol, Kelly Richardson: Legion, and One Another: Spiderlike, I Spin Mirrors. She served as the museum's project director for The Wall: Reshaping Contemporary Chinese Art, a monumental exhibition of contemporary Chinese art that marked the first collaboration between American art museums and a major Chinese art institution.
In addition to more than forty entries in the Buffalo AKG's forthcoming collection handbook (2023), Hughes has authored a wide array of essays and publications on modern and contemporary art, curation, and the Buffalo AKG's fine art collection. Hughes received her MA in Art History from the University at Buffalo, where she also worked as an adjunct professor of museum studies.
Job Titles:
- Training and Development Manager
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- Member of the Facilities Planning & Management Team
- Director of Facilities, Planning, and Management
Janet Cardiff (Canadian, born 1957) and George Bures Miller (Canadian, born 1960). Telephone Time, 2004. Sound installation on two minute loop, DVD, DVD player, telephone, desk, chair and lamp, edition 3/3, dimensions variable. Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery; Albert H. Tracy Fund, by exchange and Charles Clifton Fund, 2008 (2008:2a-f). © 2004 Cardiff & Miller.
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- Co - Chair
- a Group of Buffalo AKG Art Museum Leadership Members
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- Payroll Coordinator & Accountant
The Food & Beverage Department offers all onsite dining, catering, cafes, and bars. Cornelia acts as a counter service café during brunch and lunch hours and a full-service restaurant for dinner on Thursday and Friday Evenings. Sculpture Bar, located in the Gunlach Building, offers snacks, coffee, wine, beer, and other non-alcoholic beverage options. During events and Thursday Night Live, we offer our mobile bar in the Wilson Town Square as a pilot location for Cornelia. The mobile bar offers snacks, wine, beer, and non-alcoholic drink options. The Food & Beverage Department is committed to offering radical hospitality while featuring local food and beverage options. We are passionate about taking care of our guests and serving high-quality and seasonal food.
Jillian Jones is the Deputy Director at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. In this role, Jones serves on the museum's Leadership Team, managing most aspects of th e visitor interface and general business operations. She works closely with the Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director and the Board on all key museum initiatives such as project implementation, strategic planning, equity and diversity, and sustainability.
Prior to this role, Jones served as the Director of Advancement, which is the Buffalo AKG's chief fundraising officer. She shared leadership responsibilities with the Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director and Board President for the museum's $230 million capital campaign, the largest such campaign for a cultural institution in the history of Western New York. She extensively worked with, and continues to liaise with leadership donors, including individuals, corporations, foundations, and public sector representatives, to ensure that the museum's operations are adequately and sustainably funded.
Prior to joining the Buffalo AKG, Jones served as Manager of Major Gifts and, later, Manager of Individual Giving at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. She began her professional career at the George Washington University School of Business, Office of Development and Alumni Relations.
Jones received her MA in Museum Studies with a concentration in Public Administration from George Washington University. In 2021, Jones was named one of Buffalo Business First's 40 under 40. She has received a Certificate in Fundraising Management from the Lilly School of Philanthropy at Indiana University and is a member of the Art Museum Development Association, the Western New York Planned Giving Association, and the Western New York Women's Foundation.
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- Director
- Member of the Officers Team
- Treasurer
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- Member of the Facilities Planning & Management Team
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- Member of the Facilities Planning & Management Team
- Stationary Engineer
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- Manager of Access & Studio Programs
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- Manager of Donor Relations
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- Food and Beverage Manager
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- Head of Retail Operations
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- Manager of School & Teacher Programs
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- Member of the Facilities Planning & Management Team
- Head of Facilities
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- Head of Preservation & Safety
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- Technical Resources Manager
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- Visitor Experience & Group Tours Manager
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- Assistant Manager of Government & Foundation Relationships
Melissa Arena is the Chief Financial Officer at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. In this role, she oversees the museum's fiscal strategy and financial operations. Arena joined the museum in 2001, was promoted to Controller in 2002, and was made Chief Financial Officer in 2010.
Prior to joining the Buffalo AKG, Arena was an audit manager with Deloitte where she specialized in not-for-profit clients including hospitals and higher education and cultural institutions. At Deloitte, she managed client relationships, designed audit goals, and performed research on accounting standards applicable to not-for-profit entities. She started her career at KPMG in the audit practice and rose to manager, designing and carrying out regular and compliance audits, training and overseeing staff and fieldwork, and advising clients on implementation of new accounting principles.
Arena holds a Bachelor of Science from the University at Buffalo and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).
Job Titles:
- Assistant Registrar for Exhibitions
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- Curatorial Department Assistant / Executive Offices
The Curatorial Department's primary responsibility is to steward the development, care, installation, research, and interpretation of the museum's Fine Art Collection, which comprises more than 7,000 works of modern and contemporary art by a diverse range of artists from around the world. The Fine Art Collection is noteworthy for late-nineteenth-century Impressionist favorites, a remarkable group of early modernist works from the beginning of the twentieth century, a world-renowned collection of mid-twentieth-century American painting, and a growing collection of cutting-edge international contemporary art from recent decades. Generous gifts of works from artists themselves have been transformational to the collection, including major bequests from Clyfford Still (American, 1904-1980) and Marisol (María Sol Escobar, Venezuelan and American, born France, 1930-2016). The curators lead the Buffalo AKG's robust program of innovative special exhibitions, exhibition partnerships with other museums, and rotating installations of the Fine Art Collection. The Curatorial Department oversees additional departments, including those responsible for the museum's Archives and Special Collections, Art Preparation, Imaging and Visual Resources, Public Art, and Registration.
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- Manager of Advancement Services
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- Member of the Facilities Planning & Management Team
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- Honorary Member
- Charles Balbach Chief Curator
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- Shift Lead / Head Barista
The Registration Department is responsible for implementing policies and procedures related to caring for both the museum's Fine Art Collection and incoming loans of artworks to special exhibitions. Duties include overseeing insurance coverage, conservation, contracts and loan agreements, packing, shipping, customs procedures, fine art storage, documentation, and condition reports.
The Publications and Digital Experience Department oversees the museum's graphic identity, written content, and multimedia presence across a wide range of print and digital projects relating to the museum, its buildings, its collections, and its exhibitions. In collaboration with authors, artists, editors, designers, printers, photographers, publishers, videographers, and colleagues from museums worldwide, the department manages the museum's website and social media presence and produces books, exhibition and wayfinding signage, multimedia assets, and ephemera such as brochures, gallery guides, and fundraising and membership materials.
Job Titles:
- Head of Publications & Digital Experience
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- Senior Manager of Projects Coordination / Interim Traveling Exhibitions Coordinator
The Executive Offices of the Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director and the Deputy Director are responsible for institutional management and leadership. The Executive Offices oversee all other museum departments, as well as focus on strategic planning, fundraising, policymaking, and the AK360 Campus Development and Expansion Project. Associates who work alongside the director and deputy director provide administrative support to the museum's staff, board of directors, and external stakeholders.
The Facilities Department is responsible for the cleaning, building maintenance, groundskeeping, and interior climate control at the Buffalo AKG's Elmwood Avenue campus. Continuous monitoring and adjustment of mechanical systems is required to maintain the critical environment needed for the wellbeing of the museum's Fine Art Collection. The Facilities team also works closely with museum's curators to modify and transform galleries in preparation for temporary exhibitions. Currently the team is providing logistical support and planning for the AK360 Campus Development and Expansion Project.
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- Art Preparator & Lighting Technician
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- Community Arts Coordinator
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- Registrar for the Collection
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- Member Associate / Archives & Special Collections
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- Multigenerational Programs Coordinator
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- Facilities Representative
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- Public Programs Coordinator
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- Learning through Play Coordinator
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- Member of the Facilities Planning & Management Team
- Cleaner
Dr. Tina Rivers Ryan has been a curator with the AKG since 2017. Before
joining the AKG, she was a Curatorial Res earch Assistant in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. She is a recognized expert in the field of media art, including video, digital, and internet art, and holds five degrees in art history, including a BA from Harvard and PhD from Columbia.
Her exhibitions at the AKG include (with Paul Vanouse) 2021's Difference Machines: Technology and Identity in Contemporary Art, which received a 2022 Award for Excellence from the Association of Art Museum Curators, and 2022's Peer to Peer, which was named to Hyperallergic's list of the Top 50 Exhibitions of 2022. Her next major exhibition, Electric Op, will open at the AKG in the fall of 2024.
Outside the museum, she regularly writes for Artforum and other magazines, as well as for exhibition catalogs from museums like Dia and the Walker Art Center. Her current research projects address the Web3 rhetoric of decentralization-for which she received the prestigious Arts Writers Grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation-and the relationship between technology and the body, informed by her experience of disability.
Curator Tina Rivers Ryan leads a gallery talk on Introducing Tony Conrad: A Retrospective on May 4, 2018. Photograph by MK Photo.
Job Titles:
- Director of Communications
- Communications and Community Engagement
- Senior Manager of Strategic Communications and Media Relations
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- Public Art Project Coordinator
Zack Boehler (he/him/his) joined the Buffalo AKG Art Museum in 2017 as Public Art Project Coordinator. In this capacity, he has worked to broaden the scope of the Public Art Initiative to include internationally recognized muralists and artists including Jun Kaneko, Logan Hicks, Felipe Pantone, Bunnie Reiss, and Tavar Zawacki. Boehler worked closely with museum staff to help realize Swoon: Seven Contemplations at Albright-Knox Northland and Sarah Braman: Finding Room at Frank Lloyd Wright's Graycliff, opening in summer 2022.
Boehler received his Bachelor of Sciences and Master of Sciences degree from the State University of New York College at Buffalo in Art Education. He has held previous positions at The Ashford Hollow Foundation, Griffis Sculpture Park, and Big Orbit Gallery's Soundlab. During his graduate work, Boehler was selected as a SUNY Fellow. He maintains a studio practice.