The South Arkansas Arts Center has announced the selection of Dr. Stanton Thomas, curator of European and Decorative Art at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, to judge the 2015 Annual Juried Art Competition, according to a news release from the SAAC.
The competitive exhibition is open to artists 18 years of age or older living in the United States, who work in two- dimensional and three-dimensional fine arts media, including photography and computer-generated work. The 2015 JAC is being sponsored by Smackover State Bank.
Thomas received his Ph. D. in the subject of 15th Century Flemish Art from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, in 1998. He spent two years conducting archival research in Brussels and Leuven, Belgium, under the auspices of the Belgian American Education Foundation and the Vlaamse Gemeenschap. Prior to his enrollment at Case Western, he was an independent student at the Christian Albrechts Universität, in Kiel, Germany. He also holds a master of arts in art history from the University of Missouri, Columbia, and a bachelor of science degree from Truman University in Kirksville, Mo.
After graduation from Case Western, Thomas taught as a visiting professor at that university, then held the position of assistant curator of painting at the Cleveland Museum of Art. At his current position, Thomas is responsible for European painting and sculpture before 1900, as well as the decorative arts collection, and is the museum’s liaison for the Decorative Arts Trust, the institution’s largest and most active support group. He is also an active member of their board.
Since arriving in Memphis, he has greatly increased the Brooks’ holdings of Southern regional decorative arts, helping the museum to acquire rare pieces of silver, quilts and sugar furniture. During his time at the museum, Thomas has curated and organized numerous traveling exhibitions. Among the most popular of these were Venice in the Age of Canaletto, Nonconnah and Pisgah Forest Pottery and The Crossroads of Memory: Carroll Cloar and the American South.
Thomas’ most recent publication is the catalogue for “The Crossroads of Memory.” Thomas is a recent graduate of the Center for Curatorial Leadership in New York City and the Attingham Trust Summer School Program. Last November, during SAAC’s 50th Anniversary Celebration, Thomas gave a lecture on Cloar as part of the exhibition “Carroll Cloar’s Arkansas.”
Entry deadline for the competition is May 20. Notification of acceptance into the competition will begin on June 3. The exhibition will be in SAAC’s galleries from July 1-30.
For more information about SAAC’s 2015 Annual Juried Art Competition, visit www.saac-arts.org.