By Erin Pike, Special to JTNews
Age: 27
Location: Capitol Hill
Where to find her: theartobject.blogspot.com
“I have always been drawn to art, and museums have long been my favorite places,” says Lauren Palmor. “At a relatively young age, I learned that art history is the history of everything: The history of religion, ethics, society, technology, gender relations — all of it can be seen and understood through visual culture…all of it comes together through art history.”
Palmore is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the department of art history at the University of Washington, where her academic interests lie in British and American art of the 19th century.
“[This specific genre] appeals to me because of its highly symbolic and thoughtful nature. Before the rise of Modernism, paintings were coded and organized in a completely different way — pictures could behave like visual puzzles.”
Between earning her master’s at The Courtauld Institute of Art in London in 2009 and landing in Seattle in 2011 to begin her doctoral studies at UW, Palmor spent time working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Federation of Arts, and gave tours of American art at the Brooklyn Museum.
She’s pursuing a career in museum work, “a career,” she explains, “which demands flexibility, elasticity, and sensitivity to the work of different periods, cultures, and perspectives.”
Palmor’s interests reach far beyond the UW campus: She is a research assistant at the Frye Art Museum (“I love mining and sharing the stories of art with museum audiences”), and — most notably — she runs a pop-up gallery in Occidental Park with partner Adam Newman of Integrus Architecture, called A Gallery.
“The work of A Gallery is largely driven and determined by our location in the Pioneer Square area, and our exhibition program has been developed in part by our sensitivities to this area, its unique social landscape, and its historical value,” she said. “As a storefront, we design our exhibitions so that they can be read easily from the square, street, or sidewalk. Our exhibitions are mindful of the elements of legibility and accessibility in this context. “
Contemporary art within Seattle’s community is something that Palmor is clearly passionate about. She describes, with enthusiasm, what she finds unique about working here.
“We live in a relatively small city, so smaller gestures can have a bigger impact,” she says. “A Gallery is a perfect example of a small space and a small program that feels like it has the room and support to grow. There is a rich interconnectedness that one encounters in this city. It is inspiring to see how the arts here share a common vision in many ways, across all media.”