About

BIO

Aaron Levi Garvey is a Jewish-American Curator and Historian specializing in Modern and Contemporary Arts and Culture and currently serves as Director of the Art Museum of West Virginia University. He has worked with esteemed institutions, including as the Janet L. Nolan director of curatorial affairs at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University, Founding Chief Curator of The Hudson Eye and Long Road Projects Foundation, and chief curator of the Andy Warhol Museum. Recent exhibitions and collaborations include: serving as Guest Juror for the Janet & Walter Sondheim Art Prize in Baltimore, visiting curator at STABLE in Washington DC, curating The Hudson Eye a 10-day and 14-venue arts focused program in Hudson, New York, Arc of Life/Ark of Bones by Walter Hood and Migratory Roots by Kevin Brisco at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University, Flashing the Leather and The Drowned group exhibitions at Alabama Contemporary, Chiharu Shiota’s site-specific installation “Infinity Lines” at the SCAD Museum of Art, “Ephemera Obscura” at the Contemporary Art Center of New Orleans and Manon Bellet's "MEMO" and Shikeith’s “notes towards becoming a spill” both at Atlanta Contemporary. Additionally Garvey curated "We Are What You Eat" the inaugural art exhibition at the United Nations headquarters in New York City in 2016 and co-curated the Atlanta Biennial (ATLBNL): Recent Correspondence at the Atlanta Contemporary in August 2016.

During his role as the Janet L. Nolan director of curatorial affairs at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Garvey worked on numerous high level projects including the cultivation of institutional supporters on passion initiatives such as the Martin Moss Freeman ’77 Fund for Excellence endowment to support the acquisition of Jewish contemporary artists; rewriting and implementing a new collection management policy with a focus on up-to-date collecting practices, conservation and diversity, equity, inclusion and access; guiding the curatorial department’s deliverables for American Association of Museums reaccreditation; acquiring works by leading women, POC and LGBTQIA+ artists into the collection; conceptualizing and curating a serialized group of exhibitions by emerging and established contemporary artists entitled Radical Naturalism which investigates the museum’s permanent collection and the legacy of John James Audubon; and leading a cross departmental collaborative endeavor to commission and install public art within university department buildings and accession works into the collection.

Garvey has worked with Creative Capital for the Visual Arts grant award review panels as both an Evaluator and Grant Reader in 2014 and 2018 and most recently has been a visiting curator and lecturer at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, College for Creative Arts in Detroit, Michigan, and the Kimball Art Center in Park City, Utah, and is a collaborating curator with Independent Curators International. Beyond his work within museums and universities; Garvey co-founded the Long Road Projects Foundation a non-profit residency program and edition-publishing house for both emerging and established artists to work on experimental projects, publish unique editions and community engagements.

ADDITIONAL PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2024
Visiting Lecturer – University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa (forthcoming)
Visiting Lecturer – University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky (forthcoming)
Visiting Lecturer – University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin (forthcoming)
Grant Juror – Janet & Walter Sondheim Art Prize, Walters Museum, Baltimore, Maryland
Visiting Lecturer – STABLE, Washington DC
Visiting Lecturer – University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama

2023
Visiting Lecturer – Kimbell Art Center, Park City, Utah
Visiting Lecturer – College for Creative Studies, Detroit, Michigan
Guest Writer – Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, Georgia
Visiting Curator - Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

2022
Guest Curator – Alabama Contemporary, Mobile, Alabama
Guest Curator – The Baker Museum / Artis Naples, Naples, Florida

2021
Grant Recipient and Visiting Curator – Y.ES Contemporary, El Salvador

2020
Guest Curator – Alabama Contemporary, Mobile, Alabama
Producer – Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.
Review Panelist – Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, Nebraska

2019
Chief Curator – The Hudson Eye, Hudson, New York
Guest Curator – The Front, New Orleans, Louisiana
Guest Curator – Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Guest Curator – Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, Georgia
Guest Curator – Jacksonville University, Jacksonville, Florida

2018
Guest Curator – The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, Jacksonville, Florida
Juror – United States Congressional Artistic Discovery Award, Congressional Institute, Washington D.C.
Grant Reader, Visual Arts Grant Applications, Creative Capital, 2019 Award Year

2017
Grant Nominator - United States Artists, Chicago, Illinois
Collaborating Curator - Independent Curators International, New York, New York
Visiting Curator - University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
CEO and Curator - Art For Thought Foundation, New York
Curatorial and Research Associate - The Mildred Thompson Foundation, Berlin, Germany/Atlanta, Georgia
Guest Curator - Crisp Ellert Museum of Art, St. Augustine, Florida
Guest Curator - FLUX Projects, Atlanta, Georgia
Guest Lecturer - University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
Guest Curator - The Contemporary Art Center of New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana

2016
Guest Curator - The Joan Mitchell Foundation and Center, New Orleans, Louisiana
Chief Curator - Art For Thoughts Foundation, New York
Curatorial and Research Associate - The Mildred Thompson Foundation, Berlin, Germany/Atlanta, Georgia
Guest Curator - Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, Georgia
Guest Lecturer - United Nations Headquarters, New York, New York
Guest Lecturer - Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida

2015
Guest Lecturer - The Atlantic Trust (in conjunction with Miami Art Basel 2015), Miami, Florida
Logistics Strategist - No Commission Art Fair 2015, Miami Florida
Guest Lecturer/Instructor - University of South Carolina, Beaufort
Guest Lecturer - The Telfair Museums and Jepson Center, Savannah, Georgia

2014
Evaluator for Visual Arts Grant Applications, Creative Capital, 2015 Award Year

2013
Curatorial and Research Associate - The Mildred Thompson Foundation, Berlin, Germany/Atlanta, Georgia

2012
Research and Curatorial Assistant - SLOW: Marking Time in Photography and Film

2011
Research and Curatorial Assistant - Shared Vision: The Sondra Gilman and Celso Gonzalez-Falla Collection of Photography

2010
Research and Curatorial Assistant - The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Chair Design