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Racine, WI February 12, 2010
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The Racine Art Museum Appoints New Curator of Exhibitions
The Racine Art Museum (RAM) is pleased to announce the appointment of Lena Vigna as its new Curator of Exhibitions. Vigna comes to the museum from the Miami University Art Museum in Oxford, Ohio. Vigna will begin her position at RAM on March 1, 2010.
 With previous roots in Wisconsin, Vigna served as the Curator of Exhibitions and Department Head at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin from 2001 to 2008. Her last major show at the Kohler Laced with History (2007), was a contemporary look at lace, lace making and the concept of lace as inspiration for artworks and installation sculptures. Most recently, she has garnered recognition for her attention to contemporary art jewelry. In 2009, she co-authored an article, published in Metalsmith magazine, Mining History: Ornamentalism Revisited, dealing with the new sense of ornamentation practiced by some of the artists working in contemporary art jewelry today. And she just received an Art Jewelry Forum Grant for Adornment and Excess: Jewelry in the 21st Century, an exhibition emphasizing works that comment on how we consume materials and how jewelry functions as a commodity and a symbol in our culture.
Vigna has her BFA and MA degrees in Art History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She worked at the University of Illinois' Krannert Art Museum and the Indianapolis Museum of Art prior to moving to Wisconsin in 2001. She moved to the Miami University Art Museum in 2008.
"Lena Vigna is viewed by many people in the field as an up and coming talent and we look forward to having her on our staff," stated Bruce W. Pepich, RAM Executive Director and Curator of Collections. "She has exciting ideas and a strong interest in supporting artists and their development of new work. She also delights in sharing artists' ideas with the general public through museum exhibition and education programs. These concerns coincide exactly with RAM's mission. Her arrival here will be great for the museum and the many communities we serve," he added.
The Racine Art Museum has one of the most significant contemporary craft collections to be found in any North American art museum, with nearly 5,000 objects in the permanent collection. Its focus is on work from internationally recognized artists in ceramics, fibers, glass, metals and wood, as well as painting, sculpture and works on paper.
At RAM, Vigna will be responsible for heading an Exhibitions Department that organizes exhibitions that change three times a year at RAM and its Wustum Museum of Fine Arts campus. These exhibitions are curated from outside sources and also selected from the museum's nationally known permanent collection of contemporary crafts and works on paper.
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Together, the two campuses of the Racine Art Museum, RAM in downtown Racine at 441 Main Street and the Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts at 2519 Northwestern Avenue, seek to elevate the stature of contemporary crafts to that of fine art by exhibiting significant works in craft media with painting, sculpture and photography, while providing outstanding educational art programming.
Docent led contemporary craft and architectural tours of the museums are available. Both campuses of the Racine Art Museum, are open to the public Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 am - 5:00 pm, and are closed Mondays, Federal holidays and Easter. RAM is open Sunday Noon - 5:00 pm, while Wustum is closed Sundays. An admission fee of $5 for adults, with reduced fees for students and seniors, applies at RAM. Admission to Wustum is free. Members are always admitted without charge to either campus.
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For more information or to request images, please contact:
Laura Gillespie
RAM Marketing Assistant
262.638.8300 x 114
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