The first exhibition Tiffany Gaines ever curated did not go how she expected.
As the restrictions on in-person gatherings began getting lifted coming out of Covid, she thought she was going to shadow Burchfield Penney Executive Director Scott Propeack in a highly collaborative, multi-tiered project that was to be showcased in the art center’s largest gallery.
“And after that first meeting,” Tiffany recalls, “he was like, ‘Well, whatever you need just let me know. This is your thing now.’”
She didn’t recognize at the time the value of diving right into learning what it means to curate and work collaboratively with her peers and other artists. But now, as Burchfield Penney’s associate curator, Tiffany says that initial hands-on experience has made a difference in every show she’s been able to work on since.
“That’s one thing that I really appreciate is just the importance of nurturing talent from within and giving people the space to grow in the areas that they have an interest in and a talent in,” she says. “I think that’s so true to the ethos here, and it’s a testament to the type of space that this is and just how intrinsic that support and trust is to the culture here.”
An intentional culture cultivated by Scott, who, similarly to Tiffany, rose from part-time temp position at the museum in 1997 to executive director in 2023. One of his founding principles when it comes to fostering leaders is to provide the younger generation with the freedom to learn and make mistakes.
“I think any transition should start with an assessment of what your strengths are nearest to you,” he says. “Then it’s, how can you help them grow into the right roles?”
Scott’s assessment of Tiffany was an obvious one, since she displayed a clear drive, passion and skill set in content and marketing roles. Empowering her with more responsibilities, maybe before she thought she was ready, has made her unafraid of failure along the way.
“I’m guilty of this, too, but I think it’s very easy to get into a space of wanting to be a perfectionist or wanting to only be successful, and that’s just not realistic,”
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