Horizons Fall 2016

14 NSU HORIZONS to South Florida with her family at the age of 8. She graduated last spring with a major in art and graphic design from NSU’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. She and other graduating seniors presented their work at the Senior Exhibition titled Artcade , held last March at the Fort Lauderdale/Davie Campus. Clearwater was struck by Kuzibaeva’s work, and asked her to apply for an open job at the museum. “The fact that Bonnie Clearwater, the director of the museum, came to this event was overall exciting,” said Kuzibaeva. “But when she approached me and told me she liked my work, that was just jaw-dropping. She right away told me that she is interested and was looking for a graphic designer.” “After the event ended, my mind couldn’t wrap around the fact the director herself asked me to join her team,” Kuzibaeva recalled. “At the age of 20, I was stepping into the ‘real world’ with an amazing job opportu- nity. I am so grateful that Bonnie C. decided to come to our show.” She is now on a team producing the museum’s marketing materials such as flyers, magazine advertisements, building banners, and invitations. The museum-university connec- tion continues to evolve. Of course, there is traffic with arts students and faculty members; and, all NSU students, faculty members, and administrators receive free admission to exhibitions. The synergy extends to other NSU academics. Swann held a lecture on human musculature as art at the museum, bringing in body- builders so students could observe firsthand anatomy in the art. Writing professors take students to museum exhibits to write com- mentaries and hone their critical thinking skills. Even medical and dental college professors have brought classes in to practice their powers of observation. After all, observation is a practitioner’s invaluable first approach to a patient. LANDMARK ART SPACE ADDS MAJOR COLLECTIONS The opening of the landmark modernist art space 30 years ago not only was a dream of art patrons and pioneers like former museum exec- utive director George Bolge and the Junior League, it was a victory for the Downtown Development Authority. The authority’s goal was to lure public- private institutions to the downtown area. And, the pedigree was fantastic: Architect Barnes designed museums in Pittsburgh and Dallas, as well as the IBM building and Asia Society in Manhattan. Bolge took the museum’s helm in 1970 as executive director, leading it though the fund-raising and building phase, departing in 1988. During his tenure, he organized the first national retrospectives of the work of Ansel Adams and Norman Rockwell, the graphic work of Renoir, and the first Andrew Wyeth exhibition in Florida. After renovations in 2001 and 2007, the museum now has 25,000 square feet of exhibition space, a 256-seat auditorium, a museum store, and cafe. Its permanent collection of more than 6,000 works includes the Glackens collection, the 19th- and early 20th-century work by American realist William Glackens. In 2007, an entire wing was fashioned for the Glackens collection after the “blockbuster” run of Tutankhamun. As Sun Sentinel art critic Emma Trelles put it then, “It might seem peculiar that an ancient Egyptian king would refurbish the quarters of a modern American painter.” The second major part of the permanent collection is the largest U.S. holding of works by avant-garde Cobra artists from Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam. Untitled (Belief + Doubt = Sanity) , 2008, by Barbara Kruger, C-Print, also from Belief + Doubt: Selections from the Francie Bishop Good and David Horvitz Collection , NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale; Promised Gift of David Horvitz and Francie Bishop Good. ©Barbara Kruger, courtesy Mary Boone Gallery, NY