Spertus in the News
Suite 16 - KEEPER OF THE FLAME - Staci Boris
i4design
Spring 2008
Text by Lisa Skolnik
WHY WE LOVE HER: A Wisconsin gal and resident of Chicago for the last 14 years, Boris, Senior Curator for the Spertus Museum, is a role model for being open to new adventures. An art history major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she worked for a London art gallery, then returned to the States because she preferred researching and interpreting art rather than selling it. After earning a Master’s degree, she interned at a contemporary art institute, which led to another detour and her current passion—contemporary art. She honed that love more with 13 years at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. “The art made today relates to you as an individual, your community and the world in which you live,” she says. A ball of energy, Boris, 41, balances marriage and motherhood, with a second child on the way.
WHAT SHE’S DONE: Boris left MCA for the Spertus Museum when she was given one of those too-good-to-be-true offers: Help create a vision for a new museum on Michigan Avenue that focuses on contemporary art with a top-notch staff. With the opportunity came the challenge of moving from a general art institution to a culturally specific museum. Instead of taking a familiar route, Boris pushes the limits to present exhibitions that explore Jewish identity and different experiences related to Jewishness from a contemporary viewpoint but not just for Jewish people. “They have to be multilayered. This is a Jewish museum but one that’s forward thinking,” she says. Her exhibits reflect this boldly, with art on construction barriers as the new museum was going up to artworks that explore contemporary American Jewish identity and next year’s two--African-American works funded by the Julius Rosenwald Fund and commissioned works for the entrance vestibule. Bottom line: You don’t have to be Jewish to love Boris.
Spertus Museum, 610 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL
312-322-1700
www.spertus.edu
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