SHARING THE COLLECTION
Creating Experiences in Public Spaces
Victoria Cooke, curator
The Columbia Museum of Art’s secondfloor atrium has been transformed into
an extension of the collection galleries
courtesy of the Museum’s Exhibition
Designer and Preparator, Michael Dwyer.
Now, as visitors exit the elevator or come
up the staircase, they find a display that
highlights the variety of glass and ceramic
pieces in the CMA collection, from a tea
set designed by Michael Graves to a vase
shaped like cabbage leaves by Cliff Lee.
Additionally, there are sculptural pieces
on loan from artists Virginia Scotchie and
Rick Beck.
This space was not designed to be used as
a gallery for the collection, so it presented
several design challenges. To ensure that
the result would be as professional and
aesthetically pleasing as the rest of the
Museum’s installations, Dwyer was pressed
into service, acting as both exhibition
designer and curator for this installation.
Dwyer has been with the Museum for over
20 years as an invaluable member of the
curatorial team. He is responsible for the
selection of paint colors for exhibitions,
for the lighting of objects, and for
troubleshooting all the hitches and glitches
that invariably occur during exhibition
installations.
As a practicing artist, Dwyer shows special
sensitivity to composition and balance.
He has a particularly keen eye to the kind
of spatial details that more academically
minded curators often miss.
One challenge for this space was the
abundance of natural light. Because there
are no windows in the collection galleries,
the Museum staff can control the light
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levels to help preserve fragile works of
art. The atrium, however, has an array
of windows, letting in natural light that
fluctuates throughout the day and with
weather conditions. This limited the choice
of materials for the works to those that
do not fade when exposed to light: glass,
ceramic, stone, and metals. Fortunately, the
collection has wonderful holdings in these
areas that were not formerly on view.
The centerpiece of the atrium is the
dominant presence of the CMA’s
chandelier by Dale Chihuly. This piece,
with its color scheme inspired by the
Carolina sunset, has become a signature
piece for the Museum. The objects chosen
for the atrium had to complement this
glass sculpture. Each new object in
the space had to hold its own with the
visual weight of the chandelier without
competing with it.
Drawing on his personal familiarity with
the collection, Dwyer gathered a variety of
glass and ceramic pieces that he knew to be
visitor and staff favorites.
After experimenting with different
arrangements and studying the way the
forms related to each other, balancing sizes
and shapes within the cases, he finalized
the selection for the first installation of the
atrium’s redesign. The objects chosen reflect
the depth of the Museum’s modern and
contemporary collection in decorative arts.
The earliest work on display is a chocolate
pot designed by Danish silversmith
Georg Jensen, circa 1930. At the time,
design was becoming more mechanized
and production-oriented, but Jensen
maintained the tradition of the artist
craftsman while adopting contemporary
styles in his work. The sleek Art Deco lines
of this chocolate pot reflect the simplicity
and sleek lines of the popular style that
dominated design prior to World War II.
The first object a visitor views when
exiting the elevator is a coffee service set
designed by postmodernist American
architect Michael Graves. Graves applies
the same eclectic sensibility to his work for
the domestic market that he does to his
buildings. On this set, a geometric base
contrasts with the simple wave design on
the rounded body of the various service
pieces. Graves’ design was produced by
the Swid Powell porcelain company. The
simplicity of the design harks back to the
Art Deco era designs of artists like Jensen.
The functional, but stylish, coffee set and
chocolate pot provide a contrast to the
whimsical Iron Maiden Teapot made by
North Carolina artist Michael Sherrill.
Sherrill considers himself to be a materialsbased artist who experiments in clay,
creating handmade objects that are both
artistic and functional. Part sculpture,
part decorative arts, this teapot illustrates
the convergence of art and design in
contemporary ceramics. The teapot
has personality that goes far beyond its
utilitarian purpose.
The Chihuly is the centerpiece of the
atrium, but there are other glass pieces to
give visitors a taste for the variety in the
CMA collection.
Vases by Dante Ma