A Conversation with Curators

CMA Curator Michael Neumeister and Bill Bodine, former CMA deputy director and chief curator discuss the history of Kress collections in museums throughout the United States. 

During Bodine’s eight years at the museum, from 1994 to 2002, he oversaw the CMA Collection’s relocation from the Taylor House on Senate Street to its current home on Main Street. He and Neumeister discuss the thrill of moving and housing the Kress collection, their favorite works in the European Splendors exhibition, and the care and interpretation required to maintain such a collection. 

Neumeister joined the museum as curator in February 2022. Since then, he has organized exhibitions Sigmund Abeles: Shades of Life and Forward Together: African American Art from the Judy and Patrick Diamond Collection and coordinated the presentation of exhibitions European Splendors and The Art of Elizabeth Catlett: From the Collection of Samella Lewis. Among other projects, he is presently organizing an exhibition of postwar American abstraction.  

Recorded December 15, 2022