Security Officer Kenny Crane retired from the Weatherspoon in October 2021 after twenty-one years of service. Kenny loved interacting with museum visitors from all over the world, working with the students, and meeting people from the community. He will be missed greatly by staff and visitors alike. We wish him much happiness as he embarks on this new chapter in his life.

Associate Curator of Education Terri Dowell-Dennis retired from the Weatherspoon Art Museum in December 2021 after thirteen years of service. An artist and arts education advocate for more than thirty years, Terri was instrumental in cultivating relationships with area schools, parents, and community groups, informed by her practice of collaboration and deep engagement with youth and adult audiences around contemporary art. We wish her much success as she embarks on new creative endeavors.

The Weatherspoon enthusiastically welcomed Michael Watson, UNCG ’11 to the team in November 2021 as senior director of development. A proud Spartan and having grown up in Greensboro, Watson graduated from the University with a degree in history. Before returning to campus, he earned a master’s in public administration from Georgia College in Milledgeville, where he served as a senior donor engagement officer and interim assistant vice president of donor engagement. “I’m thrilled to return home to UNC Greensboro, particularly at such an important time for the University,” Watson says. “The Weatherspoon is one of its crown jewels, and the museum’s part in the Light the Way campaign will help further the goals of access, inclusion, and transformation to the benefit of our students and the communities we serve.”

Destiny Hemphill joined the Weatherspoon staff in October as the museum’s coordinating curator of community engagement, a newly created position at the museum supported by a grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Hemphill will help spearhead the Weatherspoon’s grant-funded initiative Leading with Objects: Engaging the Community in Institutional Change. This initiative will impact the museum’s practice and, by extension, its role within the community. It will build upon the museum’s racial equity plan, Leading Together, as it guides its broader work on equity, diversity, and inclusion. It will also explore possibilities related to the ongoing Tate + Gate project regarding the intersection of campus and community around art.

Hemphill is a poet based in Durham, North Carolina. She is the author of the chapbook Oracle: A Cosmology (Honeysuckle Press, 2018), a finalist for Honeysuckle Press’s inaugural chapbook prize. She was an arts administration intern for Duke Performances and a teaching artist for BlackSpace Poetry Wokeshops in Durham. Her work has been featured in Narrative Northeast, The Wanderer, Winter Tangerine, Scalawag, and elsewhere. Hemphill received her MFA in creative writing (poetry) from the University of South Carolina, Columbia (2020), and her bachelor’s degree in literature and African and African American studies from Duke University (2015).

A Q&A with Destiny Hemphill

What are you looking forward to in your role of coordinating curator of community engagement at the Weatherspoon?

I am excited to collaborate with the Weatherspoon in interrogating and reimagining the conventions of museums, which have been historically exclusionary and extractive. I’m also looking forward to facilitating programming that is connective, experiential, and responsive to communities on and off campus.

How has your poetry influenced how you think about community?

I think it might be easier for me to trace the influence of community on my poetry—just because it’s been so profound. From sharing poems at the
kitchen table to childhood “church homes” to protests, my personal poetic practice did not initiate as a solitary venture but something I did with, for, and/or alongside those I love. Through those communal experiences, I came to appreciate poetry for its potential to enkindle mutual presence, attention, and commitment with those I love.

Are there artists or artworks that have inspired or influenced your work? What are you currently reading or listening to?

I find Delita Martin’s writing to be especially compelling. The way her work weaves genealogy, mythos, conjure, and Texas as Black geography is something that I seek to do in my poetry. I’m currently finishing Jayna Brown’s book Black Utopias and listening to a lot of Labelle. Both have been nourishing to my spirit.

Image: Destiny Hemphill, Coordinating Curator of Community Engagement. Photograph by Martin W. Kane.

The Weatherspoon staff celebrates the lives of three longtime and dedicated members of our art community. Seymour Levin (1926–2021) was a bright light for the Weatherspoon and all who knew him. His presence and impact in our community will be deeply missed. One of Seymour’s greatest gifts was that he never met a stranger. He could talk with anyone from anywhere. May we carry that same spirit of engagement and caring with us as we continue to make the Weatherspoon a welcoming place for all. We also remember the life of Dr. Claire Kelleher (1927–2021), who was a loyal supporter of the Weatherspoon and an Assistant Professor Emerita teaching Medieval Art History at UNCG for 27 years. Garnett L. Hughes (1935–2020) is remembered as a lifelong supporter of the arts and past Weatherspoon Art Museum Advisory Board Member.

The Weatherspoon Art Museum staff mourns the loss of Barbara Kretzer (1946-2020), an incredible member of our community for many years. A member of the Weatherspoon Arts Foundation, Barbara always supported the museum's programs and exhibitions, and her support of To The Hoop: Baseketball and Contemporary Art, which opened earlier in 2020 was invaluable to realizing the project. While attending the exhibition’s opening party, Barbara was particularly struck by Bill Bamberger's photographs of lone basketball hoops—among them an image of a hoop in a neighborhood near her childhood home in New Jersey—and was elated to meet the artist and learn more about his work. Barbara’s philanthropic support of many arts organizations in Greensboro has left a strong mark on the cultural life of our city. In Barbara's memory, may we all strive to carry on her legacy through our dedication to art and the Weatherspoon.

Photo: Lynn Donovan

Founded by Gregory Ivy in 1941, the Weatherspoon Art Museum has grown from being a university teaching gallery into a multi-gallery museum that is nationally recognized for its collections and exhibition program. It is considered one of the best collections of modern and contemporary art in the Southeast with over 6,000 works that represent all major art movements from the beginning of the 20th century to the present.

For the past 22 years, the museum’s galleries, collection, and programs have thrived and grown under the skillful leadership of Nancy Doll, museum director.

At the end of July (2020), Nancy will retire and with that transition in mind, UNCG’s Susan Kirby-Smith asked her to reflect on her time at the Weatherspoon and what’s to come next.

What do you remember about first coming to UNCG as museum director, and what impressions and memories will you take with you as you leave the role?

It was a difficult first year in that I had virtually no staff. And I had an empty exhibition slot to fill in April in the McDowell Gallery. Still, I was very happy to be there, to begin to know the campus and the community, and I felt very welcomed.

My first impression was that the building needed to be enlivened — so we began to show works from our wonderful collection in the atrium. And, in a few years, we were able to renovate the courtyard to create an atmosphere that would prepare visitors for what was inside.

It’s so hard to select just a few memories. One is the opening of the Andy Warhol print exhibition when we popped small champagne bottles to give to guests as they entered. Another was Claribel Cone’s 100th birthday party — complete with an actress dressed as that grande dame. And, the first time I was able to really spend time with Willem de Kooning’s Woman and understand what a fabulous painting it is, and that the Weatherspoon owned it!

How has the museum changed and grown during your time as director?

I felt that a big part of my “charge” was to open up the museum to a wider audience, to make it more engaging and responsive. Attendance has risen steadily, and it’s become much more diverse through a concerted effort to diversify our exhibitions, collections, and programs. I think people have come to trust that we’re committed to supporting difference and diversity in every way we can.

I believe the museum has grown to underscore its role as part of the academic mission of the University. In addition to providing tours for students, we have instituted a student gallery attendant program, and we work much more closely with other units and departments across campus to co-sponsor and collaborate on programs and to target faculty who may have a particular interest in including the content of exhibitions within their curricula.

Could you describe a few of your favorite things in or about the museum?

I love the Tom Otterness Frieze and the way it brings the huge volume of space in the building’s atrium down to human scale. I also love that vast soaring space with the blue roof and clerestory windows. I also love the spiraling staircase up to the second floor with the windows that bring light into the space. And, although it’s not always open — the tower that looks down on Tate and Spring Garden Streets.

I feel a sense of tranquility when I walk through the sculpture courtyard and into the museum.

What are your future plans?

I’m planning to stay in Greensboro (so I can still go to the museum!) and have a couple of projects in mind, both of which have been put on hold until travel is safer and other people are back to work. I might also do some consulting and have even considered training to be an appraiser. After 22 years, Greensboro has become home — I love my little house in Fisher Park and have made so many wonderful friends — I really don’t plan to leave in any foreseeable future.

Interview by Susan Kirby-Smith, University Communications. Parade photography by Martin W. Kane, University Communications

The museum's staff and boards look forward to warmly welcoming Juliette Bianco as incoming Director starting September 1. Juliette succeeds Nancy Doll, who steps down on July 31 after 22 years of dedicated and successful service.

Juliette comes to UNCG from the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, her undergraduate alma mater, where she has served in various leadership capacities, including Deputy Director since 2013. With 25 years of experience as an art museum professional, she is well prepared to lead the Weatherspoon as it expands its institutional and cultural impact regionally, nationally, and globally. Fittingly, Juliette’s scholarly interests focus on transformational leadership in higher education and university museums as centers of innovative teaching and learning and hubs for exploring diversity, creative partnerships, and the benefits of strategic planning.

Juliette holds a master’s degree in art history from the University of Chicago and is a graduate of the Getty Leadership Institute’s residence program for museum administrators. She completed the Doctor of Education degree at Northeastern University in 2020.

Photo: Eli Burakian–Dartmouth College