Kelly Conway, pictured pictured before the Tiffany Gallery of the . Chrysler Museum of Art. credit: echard wheeler.
courtesy: chrysler museum of art.
In May 2013, former National Museum of Ireland curator Audrey Whitty took over as the new curator of European glass at The Corning Museum of Glass. Last week, Corning announced it has hired away another curator, this one from the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virgina. In September 2013, Kelly Conway, currently the curator of glass at the Norfolk, Virginia, institution, will assume her new duties as Corning’s new curator of American glass. Conway, a specialist in 19th- and early 20th century American glass, has been at the Chrysler Museum of Art sine 2007, where she currently serves as the Carolyn and Richard Barry curator of glass.
Karol Wight, the executive director of The Corning Museum of Glass, sees the appointment of Conway as filling another important curatorial position at the museum. “We’ve been building up a strong curatorial and research team over the last several years, including the addition of a new curator of European glass and several curatorial assistants,” Wight said in a written reply to a request for comment from the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet. “We loved the energy that Kelly brought to her work at the Chrysler and felt that her experience and curatorial vision would be an excellent complement the growing, dynamic team in place.”
Conway has curated large shows at the Chrysler Museum of Art, including “Tiffany Treasures from the Chrysler Collection,” “Cheers to Queen Victoria: British Glass from the Chrysler Collection,” “Cameo Performances: Masterpieces of Cameo Glass from the Chrysler Collection, and managing two traveling exhibitions, “Art of Glass 2: Contemporary Glass Among the Classics” and “Green Eye of the Pyramid.” She was a key figure in creating the Chrysler’s hot glass studio, where, in 2012, she organized the “Glass Studio Visiting Artist Series,” which was a rotation of five exhibitions showcasing live demonstrations with practicing artists, such as Benjamin Moore, Dante Marioni, Janusz Pozniak, Debora Moore, John Miller, Einar and Jamex de la Torre, and April Surgent.
Most recently, Conway has worked to strengthen the connections between the museum’s permanent glass collection and the practices of the studio through the museum’s renovation project planned to finish in April 2014. Conway’s last contribution to Chrylser will be a new book entitled Glass at the Chrysler Museum, a co-authored publication due to be released in late 2014.
Conway is a lecturer on glass art and history, serves on the board of directors of the National American Glass Club, and is a member of the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass and the International Council of Museums Glass Committee. She received her B.A. from DePauw University in American History and her M.A. from the Parsons School of Design and the Smithsonian Associates in the History of Decorative Arts.
—Gina DeCagna