Fonda Portales, university art curator and collections manager. Photo by Allison Corona
When you think of public art and Boise State University, what first comes to mind? Is it Nobuyo Okuda’s Eternal Wind sculpture near the Quad or the 12-foot-tall stainless steel “B” standing in front of the Administration Building? Is the “B” considered public art or is it just clever branding?
These are questions worth a lively discussion with Fonda Portales, Boise State’s new university art curator and collections manager. Portales was hired by the university this fall to fill the new position to make public art more available and inviting to everyone on campus. She notes that most of the university’s permanent collection is already hanging in structures around campus – offices, hallway spaces, places where it is accessible to faculty and students. Her challenge is helping students, faculty and staff engage with it. To this end, she will work with the University Arts Advisory Committee to create a visual arts master plan for the campus.
“My goal is to create visual art experiences that get students participating with a diverse array of arts, styles, techniques and materials,” Portales said. “Ultimately, my role is to connect students and community members to the campus experience, through the arts.”
Working under the umbrella of Campus Operations, Portales will be responsible for curating the World Museum in the new Fine Arts Building, the Student Union Fine Arts Gallery, as well as its sister gallery, Trueblood, a pop-up exhibition space in the Student Union Building. “I’ll be curating those spaces as well as locating spaces for temporary and permanent installations of public art,” she explained. In addition, she will manage the university’s permanent art collection – most of which has been generously donated or gifted by patrons – and build the collection through new acquisitions, place pieces on loan and as facilitate their preservation and conservation.
Portales explained that one way to engage students is to let them know what’s on campus and where things are. She potentially will arrange art tours on campus and work with faculty members who are getting their students excited about public art.
“I think it’s also important to choose pieces that can create spaces people can participate with, like Transference,” she said, referring to Boise State’s newest sculpture. “They become part of that interior space of the art piece. I think that’s exciting and cool and that’s one of the best parts of public art – you’re more aware of yourself, of your environment, and if the artwork is also interesting and challenging, and technically and stylistically significant, it’s a whole world you’re interacting with all of the sudden.”
Transference is a new sculpture by Leslie Dixon and Ken McCall that has been installed next to the Environmental Research Building. It is part of a collaboration between the City of Boise and Boise State.
While in a new position, Portales is no newcomer to campus. For the past eight years, she taught upper and lower-division art history courses in the art department. Portales holds a Masters of Arts in Art History from California State University, Los Angeles, with a specialty in Pre-Columbian art, and while in graduate school had the opportunity to manage an on-site museum at the archaeological project to uncover Urkesh in Mozan, a small village outside of Al-Qamishli, Syria. Before moving to Boise, she also worked at the Department of Cultural Affairs in Los Angeles, where she fell in love with arts administration.
“I just love Boise State and the art department here,” she said. “If I had been asked to create the perfect position for myself, this would have been it. I wanted to invest in student experiences around art.”
BY: CIENNA MADRID PUBLISHED 2:59 PM / DECEMBER 13, 2016
The post Fonda Portales is New University Art Curator appeared first on College of Arts and Sciences.