Arts & Entertainment Out Of The Wilderness Kenneth Myers is named new chief curator of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Suzanne Chessler Special to the Jewish News W ilderness — real and artistic — spreads out as a central inter- est of the new chief curator of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Kenneth Myers, who joined the museum in 2005 as curator and department head of American art, expanded his personal enthusiasm for wilderness hiking into a continuing career enthusiasm for wilderness paintings and painters. A current commitment is preparing a traveling exhibit of works by Frederic Church, represented at the DLk and known for his scenic landscapes of the eastern United States completed in the 1850s and 18605. "I did a lot of hiking and remote back- packing when I was in high school, college and graduate school," recalls Myers, 54, whose summer included attendance at a Museum Leadership Institute in California and vacation trekking in the Sierras. "Out of that, I started teaching a course at Yale on 'Wilderness in American Literature and Painting, and my writing about land- scape art grew out of that course. I wouldn't have done the course except for the fact that I had been doing so much hiking." The promotion of Myers, who will retain his responsibilities with the American collec- tion, was joined with promotions that place Alan Darr in charge of European paintings, sculpture and decorative arts and designate Salvador Salort-Pons as associate curator of European paintings. c^^ 11 " "It is a pleasure to announce some good Reconstructionist synagogue near the news in these trying times:' says Graham Smithsonian, has attended Conservative W.J. Beal, DIA director."The DL-k always services in Michigan and served as a mem- has attracted top talent, and Ken, Alan and ber of the Maas Prize Committee for the Salvador are among the best in their fields:' Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. Myers, among 12 curators, helped rein- Myers, who grew up outside Manhattan, stall the American collection after the has been interested in the arts since his recent museum renovation and now will teenage years."' was serious about lit- have more input into the larger strategy erature and art by high school," he says."I decisions at the facility. majored in literature, expected "This new position will get to pursue a career as a profes- me much more involved in sor and received my Ph.D. helping senior management from Yale in American studies, set long-term goals in policy working on the relationship and define our vision as we between early 19th-century move fonvard," says Myers, writing about landscape and also taking on more responsi- early 19th-century painting bility- for productivity and staff about landscape." mentoring. After teaching in the "I've been active in research American studies program and publications since I joined at 'Middlebury College in the museum, and its expected Kenneth My ers: "I still Vermont, Myers shifted from see myself primarily that I'll continue to pursue writing about literature to as a teache r." that. The Church project will writing about art. During be my first major traveling his 10 years at Middlebury, exhibition since coming to the DLC he curated an exhibition that served as Myers joined the museum after work- a model for the kind of interdisciplinary, ing at the Smithsonian Institution in visitor-focused installations that the DIA Washington, D.C., where he was curator of is developing. American art at the Freer Gallery of Art. "I found I really liked working with He organized numerous exhibitions focus- objects:' says Myers, who has received ing on the work of James McNeill Whistler, fellowships from the J. Paul Getty Trust, co-curated the exhibition "Mr.IVhistler's National Endowment for the Humanities Galleries: Avant-Garde in Victorian London" and Metropolitan Museum of Art. "I see and wrote the related book Mr. 1.1rhistler - exhibition designs as a different mode of Gallery: Pictures at an 1884 Exhibition. teaching and still see myself primarily as Myers, who was a member of a a teacher:' \\Idle at _ ' ■liddleburv, Myers wrote the catalogue and organized the exhibition The Catskills: Painters, Writers and Tourists in the Mountains, 1820-1895. The Frederic Church exhibit, which Myers expects to be completed within five years, will teach about the artist as tourist. It will feature materials linked with the painter's trip to the Holy Land and nearby countries. The exhibit starts with the visual cul- ture that Church would have anticipated, continues with amassed photographs as well as drawings and oil studies completed during the travels and ends with works later produced in the artist's studio. "There are a handful of photos of Jews in the col- lection:' says Myers. Current essay projects surround two DL-k-displayed paintings: Worthington Whittredge's Twilight on the Shawangunk Mountains, a landscape on long-terrn loan from Richard Manoogian, and Henry Peters Gray's Truth, a work donated to the muse- um by a friend of the curator. Myers, whose reinstallation of the American collection included the acquisi- tion of a Renaissance revival cabinet built for the 1876 World Fair in Philadelphia, looks forward to upcoming museum enhancements allowed by his new position. "I'm thrilled to be given this opportunity by Graham to become even more involved with the DL," says Myers, married with a daughter starting Cornell University and a stepdaughter at Brandeis University."' want to work toward taking the museum to anoth- er level of openness and inclusiveness:' Search On reality TV, mom knows best when helping son find his mate. Suzanne Chessler Special to the JelNish NeWS Y vonne Sabato might have become a Jewish mother, but her religious heritage was kept secret because her family feared repercussions from the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia. Instead, she was raised as a Catholic relo- cated to Italy and will show those cultural leanings while appearing on a reality TV series spotlighting her son, hunk actor and model Antonio Sabato Jr. My Antonio, a 10-episode mate-search by this single celeb coached by his mom, debuts Aug.16 on VI-11. "This show is not made up',' says Yvonne Sabato, 62, who had been a singer and dancer in Europe and the Mideast. "It's all 38 August 13 • 2009 surprises, and it's very natural and fun:' The series depicts the actor-model, mar- ried briefly and with two children from different relationships, ready to settle down with someone who is serious about life and love, adventurous, cultured and comfortable — aside from being gorgeous. The star, whose program operates out of his tropical enclave in Hawaii, caught American attention after appearing in Italian features. Fans know him through a continu- ing role on General Hospital and Calvin Klein ad campaigns. "During the series, I talk to my son and the girls, and I try to see which of the girls is real:'Yvonne says."Over the weeks, the audi- ence will see how people change and how personalities come out" Yvonne Sabato, who derives her Jewish heritage through her mother, describes a childhood in which her family was stripped of their possessions and turned into circus performers to support the state. Although assisting her dad through childhood, she once was kept as a hostage for nine months while her parents toured outside the country. "We were sent out of the country more and more','Sabato says."\ \Then I was a teenager, we were in Italy for a long time, and I staved. "Over the years, I had hints that my moth- er was Jewish. I got most of the information from the nanny I had when I was small and who staved in contact. I never asked my mother because it was a difficult subject." After marrying a famous actor and mov- ing to the United States in 1985, Sabato learned through the American Red Cross that her mother's family had been sent to Auschwitz during \tiorld \ \Tar II. "I've always been drawn to know- Antonio Sabato Jr. and ing about his mom, Yvonne Judaism," says Sabato, who visited Auschwitz after the war. "I took my kids to see Tereisenstadt." Sabato gave up her career to devote her time to family."I think people on reality- shows need to be themselves," Sabato saws."' think if people start trying to show just their best, it's not a reality show" — My Antonio premieres 10 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 16, on VH1.