Curatorial department restructuring includes two internal promotions
SEATTLE, WA
June 25, 2024
Following a national search, the Frye Art Museum is pleased to announce that Faith Brower will join the museum as its first Director & Curator of Collections. She begins her role at the Frye on Wednesday, June 26.
Most recently, Ms. Brower has served as the Haub Curator of Western American Art at Tacoma Art Museum where she developed the [re]Frame project to expand the narratives regarding the art of the American West through a guest curator program that received multiple grants from the Terra Foundation for American Art. Brower also led for TAM the development of the award-winning catalogue, Warhol and the West, and co-curated its nationally touring exhibition. She has curated more than 25 exhibitions, including On Native Land: Landscapes from the Haub Family Collection, Immigrant Artists and the American West, Native Portraiture: Power and Perception, and Momentum: New Acquisitions from the Collection. She has worked with a range of contemporary artists on exhibitions and commissions, including Nikesha Breeze, RYAN! Feddersen, Allan McCollum, Camille Patha, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Marie Watt, among others.
Brower's priority in the newly created position of Director & Curator of Collections will be to research, grow, and better integrate the Frye's collections into its overall artistic program. She will lead the Collections & Registration Division, overseeing all aspects of planning, care, and stewardship for the collection, joining current division members Teresa Redden and Suzann Vaughn. She will also be a collaborating member of the Curatorial department, drawing on her background in modern and contemporary art and specializing in curating exhibitions that aim to make museum collections meaningful for contemporary audiences.
“I am honored to join the Frye Art Museum and their talented team of museum professionals. I've admired their provocative art programming for many years,” Brower states. “While the Frye Salon is a beloved highlight, I am also interested in exploring the collection as a platform for working with artists and ideas that are relevant today,” Brower says. “By placing the collection in local and global contexts through original exhibitions, new scholarship, and powerful programs, we can add value to the vibrant and creative community in the Seattle area.”
This new position is part of a larger-scale reimagining of the Frye’s curatorial program, now decentralized across several museum departments to provide a platform for a diversity of voices and offer audiences varied points of entry. The museum is pleased to announce two related internal appointments:
Georgia Erger has been promoted from associate to full Curator. Erger has held the role of associate curator at the Frye Art Museum since 2021, during which time she has organized exhibitions including Stephanie Syjuco: After/Images, Sky Hopinka: Subterranean Ceremonies, and Clarissa Tossin: to take root among the stars, as well as several iterations of the Boren Banner Series public art initiative. Previously, she held the position of Assistant Curator at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University. In her new role, Erger will further develop the museum’s ambitious contemporary exhibitions program, advancing the Frye’s goal of presenting a wide range of local and global artists’ work to Seattle audiences.
Recently appointed senior staff member Tamar Benzikry’s role has been expanded to Director & Curator of Learning and Engagement. As a collaborating member of the Curatorial department, Benzikry will draw on her extensive experience working with artists to develop exhibitions, public art, and site-specific projects that explore the intersections of art, technology, and community.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Faith to the Frye,” says Executive Director Jamilee Lacy. “Her passion for connecting contemporary ideas to historical collections via thoughtful collaborations with artists and other thinkers perfectly positions her to accomplish our goals of telling the multitude of stories held in our collection in a fresh and exciting way. I look forward to seeing how her rigor and practice of generosity both shed new light on our past and shape the museum’s future. Our brilliant colleagues Georgia and Tamar likewise are ideal thought partners to lead the Frye into a new chapter of experimental collaboration.”
About the Frye Art Museum
Founded in 1952, the Frye is Seattle’s only free art museum, bringing together art and new ideas within a stunning Olson Sundberg Kundig-designed building in historic First Hill. A founding collection of turn-of-the-century oil paintings is bolstered by a wide range of modern and contemporary art holdings, reflecting our region's evolving identity and a commitment to exploring the art of our time. Learn more at fryemuseum.org.