{"id":90644,"date":"2025-02-20T11:34:01","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T18:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=90644"},"modified":"2025-03-16T21:21:30","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T04:21:30","slug":"janalee-emmer-on-the-transformative-power-of-art-exhibitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/janalee-emmer-on-the-transformative-power-of-art-exhibitions\/","title":{"rendered":"Janalee Emmer on The Transformative Power of Art Exhibitions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Brigham Young University Museum of Art director Janalee Emmer<\/p><\/div>\n

For Janalee Emmer, the transformative power of exhibitions remains at the heart of her curatorial philosophy. Whether engaging with medieval altarpieces, contemporary landscape photography, or Renaissance sculpture, she sees exhibitions as portals into other worlds, capable of reshaping how we see and experience art.<\/h4>\n

Emmer, director of the Brigham Young University Museum of Art, recalls first learning about the grandeur of Sienese painting in an art history class, where she was introduced to Duccio\u2019s “Maest\u00e0”\u2014a 16-foot-high altarpiece that, upon its completion, was paraded through the streets of 14th-century Siena as a city-wide celebration. \u201cI love imagining this kind of world\u2014where an unveiling of a painting is a city-wide celebration and art is woven into the very fabric of everyday life,\u201d she says.<\/h4>\n

A recent visit to Siena: The Rise of Painting<\/em> at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (which closed at the end of January), rekindled her fascination with early Sienese art and underscored the ability of exhibitions to create a deeply immersive experience. \u201cThe darkened galleries, painted in black and light gray to mimic the well-known zebra-like patterns inside Siena\u2019s cathedral, allowed the paintings\u2014many with gilded surfaces and gold leafing\u2014to positively shine,\u201d she recalls. Works by Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers reminded her of the emotional power embedded in pre-Renaissance art. \u201cWhile we tend to glorify the rise of humanism in the Renaissance and the mastery of depth and perspective, the art that came before was equally powerful and moving. It deserves more attention.\u201d<\/h4>\n
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