![]() ![]() WIDE GAPPED SERIESHe created an in-house exhibition series that presented artwork from around the globe in the school’s Green Hall galleries as well as a gallery at 32 Edgewood Ave., which opened in 2009 adjacent to a new studio building for the school’s sculpture program. His successful fundraising efforts enabled the school to expand financial aid and provided much-needed resources and stability amid the 2008 global financial crisis. He expanded the course offerings beyond the traditional disciplines, blending new forms, formats, and technologies - such as video and digital imaging - into the curricula of the school’s four departments: painting and printmaking, photography, sculpture, and design. Storr devoted his deanship to diversifying the school’s faculty, student body, and curriculum. ![]() “I was transparent about my ideas, and I never gave up,” he said. It was a long endeavor - one that provoked resistance at times - but gradually people embraced the need for change, he said. He didn’t try to overhaul the program overnight. “The program needed to become more international, more culturally diverse, and more diverse in terms of artistic mediums.” “We needed to innovate to provide our students the skills and knowledge to enter a fast-evolving art world,” he said. Soon after coming to the School of Art, Storr realized that its program needed updating. Prior to that, from 1990 to 2002, he was a curator and later senior curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, organizing numerous major exhibitions as well as reinstallations of the museum’s permanent collection.Ī few years before becoming dean, he was named director of visual arts for the 2007 Venice Biennale, making him the first American to organize the grand international exhibition where critics, curators, artists, and a cosmopolitan cross section of art enthusiasts converge every two years to assess the state of contemporary art. He came to campus from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, where he was the first Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art. Storr arrived at Yale in 2006 as a prominent art-world figure whose experience bridged the artist’s studio, museum galleries, and academia. Rob moves through the world as Whitman did, believing he has something to learn from everybody. It was a reminder that the discourse is wide open at all times and in all directions, which is something teachers, scholars, and artists should never forget.” It was about the way the students think about things how they assimilate the general discourse and how they do so differently than me due to differences in our backgrounds, generational experiences, and individual needs. “But it wasn’t so much about the craft, although the craft was important. WIDE GAPPED HOW TO“These are very gifted young men and women, and some of them knew how to do things that I wanted to try,” Storr said. Occasionally, they taught him tricks of the painterly trade, such as new methods for layering paint or priming canvases. Students provided him a window into the zeitgeist, helping him to keep abreast of new currents and ideas. Through teaching, he gained insight into the way students perceived the school’s academic program and what parts of it required strengthening. “I learned so many things,” said Storr, who retires from Yale on June 30 after leading the School of Art from 2006 to 2016 and serving as professor of painting and printmaking in the five years since he stepped down as dean. And he valued what they taught him in the process. A practicing visual artist, he enjoyed helping his students hone their craft. As dean of the Yale School of Art, Robert Storr was a regular presence in the school’s studios and classrooms, teaching the fundamentals of painting and drawing every semester while also conducting graduate seminars and participating in critiques of students’ work. ![]()
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