Earlier this summer, the Georgia Museum of Art welcomed Ciel Rodriguez to our staff. She began her new position as curatorial assistant in contemporary art in June.
Rodriguez has a background in modern art and received her undergraduate degree from the Art Institute of Chicago. There she fostered a passion for American and contemporary art, which was a driving factor as to why she chose to work at the Georgia Museum of Art, with its focus in these fields. “To be working with a collection that is in my art history wheelhouse and where my passion for art lies is really nice.”
Rodriguez has a variety of previous experience, including time at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University as museum preparator, the Athenaeum as a gallery assistant and the Lyndon House Arts Center as studio manager. She completed her master of fine arts degree at the Lamar Dodd School of Art, focusing on interdisciplinary studio arts and museum studies. She said she was drawn to the program by the hands-on teaching aspect of the program. She’s also a familiar face at the museum, where she interned while a graduate student in both the curatorial and exhibition design and preparation departments.
One of her more formative memories of her time at UGA and the Georgia Museum of Art was attending the museum’s Clinton Hill exhibition. The show featured abstract work created with different paper-making techniques. Rodriguez has a background in printmaking and paper making; this exhibition was the first time that she had seen that type of art displayed in a museum, and it gave her the courage to keep pursuing her own practice.
In her new position at the museum, Rodriguez said she hopes to “bring visibility to underrepresented artists.” Her own background as an artist continues to foster a passion for supporting living artists. “To be able to fund artists and resident programs through the museum would be a really amazing experience for artists while also bolstering our collection,” she said.
Rodriguez will bring research, administrative and organizational support to our current and emerging curatorial projects in modern and contemporary art, thanks to funding from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation.
Authored by:
Mia Simmons
