This is sure a newsy month for the Art Museum; even as they have put the brakes on the expansion, they have hired Tricia Y. Paik as assistant curator of modern and contemporary art.
Ms. Paik, who will begin her post in early 2009, is the former curatorial assistant in the Department of Drawings at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Her main focus for SLAM will basically be filing the venerable Robin Clark's shoes as curator for the museum's New Media and Currents series; under Clark, Currents had a deadeye track record for spotting up-and-coming talent (like Julie Mehretu and Neo Rausch).
Paik has curated exhibits focused on George Seurat and Anselm Keifer, but if past SLAM contemporary exhibits are any indication, the exhibits she'll bring to St. Louis will be a bit more cutting-edge and contemporary. Charlotte Eyerman, curator and department head of modern and contemporary art, promises Paik will be launching "exciting new initiatives and collaborations;” we can't wait to see what those will be. —Stefene Russell
