Janet Dees has been keeping busy. As co-curator for the latest installment of SITE Santa Fe’s latest 20 Years/20 Shows and the sole curator for Unsuspected Possibilities, her cultural cup runneth over. Both exhibits are open to the public starting this week.
How did the idea for a yearlong art celebration at SITE originate?
Well, it's our 20th anniversary, and we were trying to think of way to honor our history while looking to our future, so were brainstorming about how to incorporate that into the exhibition programming, not just special events. We came up with this idea of 20 shows for 20 years as a way to engage with artists who had been at SITE in the past. We looked at artists who had spent some time here, not just those that could send a showpiece over, but artists that really have a connection to the place.
Professionally, how did you balance the time between handling the two shows?
I don't know that I did! I just worked really hard to give them both as much attention as possible. Unsuspected Possibilities was a show that we got a Rauschenberg Foundation grant for and I had been working on for a while, but I tried to give attention to each artist as much as possible.
What awaits after the anniversary celebration is over? How do you follow it up?
Well, we just keep thinking about the next 20 years [laughs].
Santa Fe Reporter