Queens Gazette

Local-Express

Margot Yale



 

 

Margot Yale is a curator and art historian based in Queens. She is a cataloguer in the Department of Drawings and Prints at the Museum of Modern Art. She recently finished her year-long tenure as an art producer for the Artist Commissioning Program at the Queens Council on the Arts (QCA), where she participated in selecting and supporting four performing artists developing new works for Queens, which premiered in Jackson Heights, Jamaica, and Flushing. She also recently served as a panelist for ArtSite, also at QCA, selecting eight artists to create public art in Jackson Heights and Jamaica.

Yale’s earliest experience working in the arts was assisting an artist with maintaining and advocating for one of the artist’s collaborative public projects. Since then, she has assisted with exhibitions and curatorial projects at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Princeton University Art Museum, and the National Museum of American Jewish History. Yale is the curator of “Memory Palace” at Equity Gallery (2018) and “Populist Printmaking: Works from the WPA Graphic Arts Division” at the Princeton University Art Museum (2016). She is committed to the accessibility of the arts and her work focuses on expanding the American art-historical canon and examining the effects of arts and cultural policy on civil society. Born and raised in Queens, she maintains a longstanding commitment to the borough’s arts and cultural landscape. Yale holds a BA summa cum laude from Princeton University in art history and American studies.

 

 

QS: What fascinates you about art? Why devote your life to art?

MY: The longer I have studied art, the more I have come to realize that every work of art is multi-layered and each layer must be stripped back to reveal a complete story. The metaphorical act of excavating a work of art in this way is what fascinates me and keeps me engaged in the field. Much of this revealed story may be personal to the artist, but each work of art also carries a universal quality. This universality is at the core of why I believe art matters. Art has the power to enable moments of empathy, shared between the viewer of a work and the artist. The act of looking, watching, or experiencing a work of art allows us as viewers to see the world through the artist’s eyes, if only momentarily. In an increasingly divided country and world, taking time to experience the world through another person’s perspective and engaging in a moment of empathy is refreshing and critical. I devote my life to art because I believe that the empathetic nature of art can help us to identify the tools we need to build a kinder and more just world.

QS: What do you feel public art projects give to the community besides beautification?

MY: Public art allows for chance encounters. Usually, people have to intentionally decide to go see and experience art – in a museum, a gallery, a studio, a theater, or a concert hall. With this decision to visit a museum comes a certain mindset and code of conduct of how to engage with the works inside the space. But removing art from the “white cube” and situating it in public space means that community members are more likely to encounter the work unintentionally. It becomes part of their built environment – something that they see, think about, and engage with on a regular basis. It allows for these exceptional moments of shared empathy to become embedded in the regular routine of the community. I hope these works spark conversation, curiosity, and inspiration within the community.

QS: When selecting art on a panel, how do you choose a work that speaks to a whole community, especially ones as heterogeneous as most in Queens are?

MY: This question was one of the greatest challenges for the panel because it’s nearly impossible for a public artwork to reflect all of the identities present in Jackson Heights and Jamaica and this was something that we considered very carefully. For proposals that were particularly text-heavy, we considered the feasibility of this text being translated into the community’s many languages. It was really important that we chose works that could highlight many stories within a community or a notably underrepresented story in the community that needed telling. I do not live in Jamaica or Jackson Heights so my responsibility was listening very closely to my fellow panelists who do and learning from their concerns. Our eight final selections reflect the heterogeneity of Queens and I’m really thrilled about the stories their works will tell and the modes with which these artists intend to engage their communities in the act of telling these stories.

QS: What are your favorite places in Queens?

MY: One of my favorite places in Queens is the Queens Museum. I grew up going to the art workshops every weekend at the Queens Museum, which was my first exposure to an art museum. I attribute my passion for art and museum work to having grown up with the Queens Museum as a backdrop. It’s been so exciting to watch the institution evolve in its new and expanded building, and to put on incredible exhibitions in recent years, like Mel Chin: All Over the Place and Mierle Laderman Ukeles: Maintenance Art. Other favorite places in Queens include Fort Totten Park and the Noguchi Museum.

—Annette Hanze Alberts

This column was originated in July, 2013 by Nicollette Barsamian.


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