The New Jersey Association of Museums has named Gail Stavitsky, Chief Curator of the Montclair Art Museum, the recipient of the 2015 John Cotton Dana Award. Dr. Stavitsky is being honored for advancing the service of museums to the region, for demonstrating visionary and creative leadership, and for encapsulating the highest standards of professional commitment as exemplified by museum pioneer John Cotton Dana (1856-1929). The award will be presented at the NJAM Annual Meeting at Grounds for Sculpture on June 1st.
Dr. Stavitsky has served as curator for the Montclair Art Museum for the past twenty-one years, setting the course of MAM’s curatorial vision for one fifth of the museum’s 101-year history. She has organized many outstanding exhibitions, including Precisionism in America 1915-1941: Reordering Reality (1994), Waxing Poetic: Encaustic Art in America (1999), Cezanne and American Modernism (2009), and The New Spirit: American Art in the Armory Show, 1913 (2013).
Furthermore, she has served as primary author on numerous scholarly catalogs including Will Barnet: A Timeless World (2000) and Warhol and Cars: American Icons (2011), contributed to many additional publications such as Robert Smithson’s New Jersey (2014), and is a respected lecturer. Recognized as a scholar of American modernism, Dr. Stavitsky has made major cultural contributions to the state of New Jersey and is an innovative leader in the curatorial world.
From: New Jersey Association of Museums