John Massier

[ excerpted from HERE. ]

Shitstorm Hits Syracuse!

Young curator Astria Suparak generated a great deal of excitement during her first year as Director of The Warehouse Gallery in Syracuse, NY. The recent news that she would be deaccessioned from her position in a "restructuring" move has upset and incensed a lot of people, in Syracuse and across the country. No one gets it and no one can imagine what Suparak might have done to merit her dismissal. Jeffrey Hoone, executive director of the Coalition of Museums and Art Centers, has taken full responsibility for the firing but has failed to detail any justification for the dismissal, falling back on the politically-convenient trope that there are issues he is unable to legally disclose.

I've met Astria, but don't know her personally. I have, however, in the past year, heard NOTHING BUT raves and bottomless enthusiasm for the program she developed at Warehouse and the energy she has injected into the local scene. It's disappointing, to say the least, to see the fantastic forward momentum of a young curator be interrupted so suddenly and emphatically.

[ excerpted from HERE. ]