Danforth Corporate Breakfast 2012 L-R: Louise Kennedy, WBUR Director of Community Engagement; Matthias Waschek, Worcester Art Museum Director; Katherine French, Danforth Museum Director; Serge Paul-Emile, MetroWest Alliance for Workforce Diversity

Creating An Environment for Growth

Summer is a time when many of us focus on our gardens. Here at the Danforth, it's also a time when we enjoy sustained growth. Students are enrolling for summer classes, and many are choosing to renew or purchase memberships, including nearly 500 artists who submitted almost 1,500 works to our Off the Wall and Community of Artists juried exhibitions.  

Bernardi Auto Group, Page Waterman Gallery, the NAN Award and a growing number of individual supporters made it possible for us to host a special Patron's Preview on Saturday, June 2, for artists, curators and collectors. During the Patron's Preview, a number of works were sold or considered for future purchase. This overwhelming response is reflective of the art community's high regard for selections made by the Boston Museum of Fine Art's Cody Hartley, who served as this year's juror, and of the Danforth Museum of Art's ability to showcase completely unique works by member artists.  

In fact, more than one third of current members at the Danforth define themselves as artists, demonstrating that we not only cultivate an audience engaged by looking at art, we also cultivate an audience engaged in making art.

Jessica Roscio, Associate Curator and Museum Registrar, has been incredibly busy these past few months. After managing the submission process and collecting all artist works for our Annual Juried Shows Off the Wall and Community of Artists, Jessica is now gearing up for our second annual juried show featuring picture book illustrations, Picture This! 

Growing up in northern Virginia just outside of D.C., Jessica took advantage of the wide selection of cultural institutions in the area and her interest in museums grew out of these visits. "I always felt like I belonged in a museum. I love history, I love art, and I always knew that I was meant to work in museums," she says. With this in mind, she attended the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA, and received a Bachelor of Arts in History with a Minor in Art and Art History.

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