To introduce the series, we have interviewed Sam Eckert, AVA’s Exhibition Manager and Curator. Sam is both an artist and a curator. The conversation explores the connection between these two practices, as well as how Eckert approaches curating a show at AVA. In this introductory blog, Eckert will reflect on the 2025 exhibition series.
Lastly, we’re delighted to announce the 2026 exhibition schedule. You can read a preview of what’s happening in the galleries below and find a link to the upcoming exhibitions and events schedule.
Enjoy!
The Interview:
Emmie Foster: Hi Sam, it’s so nice to have the opportunity to chat with you. I guess we’ll start with a question to orient everyone: How did you become a curator?
Samantha Eckert: Well, I started late in my curating career; most people in this field begin much younger. I studied studio and commercial art in undergrad, but it wasn’t until my early 40s that I went back to school at the Institute of American Indian Arts for museum studies. After I graduated, I was an adjunct in the Museum Studies Dept. and ran the student gallery. In 2015, I earned my MFA in Visual Arts. So, I have a varied background– heavy in administration and higher ed., combined with coordinating and installing large group exhibitions featuring a wide range of content and media. Incidentally, curating exhibitions might be in my genes: my ancestor, Giuseppe Saverio Mercadante, was an opera composer in the 1800s- so you could make the correlation that musical arrangement is similar to arranging visual art.
EF: What do you see as the primary role of the curator? Do you see a parallel between world-building and curating?
SE: I think a good curator will show off the artwork first and the venue second. For AVA, the primary role is to showcase a broad range of contemporary artists, providing the audience with variety. This could mean artists working with current events or with abstract ideas. Sometimes this pushes comfort zones, but in the goal of generating conversations.
As a curator, your goal is to broaden a visitor’s point of view or say something impactful, whether that be aesthetically, emotionally, politically, or intellectually.
I like to build stories within exhibitions. I guess this is my curatorial voice, poetic in nature. The “stories” are always arranged differently; a story could be about color, shape, or content. Some curators do quite the opposite, arranging things so that there is a change-up and no relationship between each work, which just doesn’t resonate with me. Also, selling art is vital to an artist and to a gallery.
EF: What made you decide to focus on contemporary art? What draws you to it?
SE: I’ve always been drawn to abstract painting, conceptual art, and the Fluxus movement. When I was a kid, I saw a biopic film about the Beatles. There was this scene in the film when John Lennon met Yoko Ono, and he visited the gallery where she showed her piece “Yes”. John climbed up the ladder, picked up the magnifier, and read the word. I remember thinking, “What the heck!”, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And still do. Now, of course, I think about it as being so powerful and poetic. So, in grad school, this was my focus: to make art that had poetic and meaningful messages. I was making sculptures and installation works using all sorts of materials, from humble household things to personal objects, each chosen to convey something I wanted to say to the audience. I’m drawn to mystery and beauty and the endless search for truth in my own work and in looking at other artists’ work.
EF: Being in touch with that inner knowing, or visual sensibility, can be difficult but grows easier over time, as we’ve discussed before. Do you think your curatorial sensibility and the inner knowing you use when making art are the same? Is there a difference between your curatorial and artistic practices? Do they overlap?
SE: They overlap for me for sure. I am always thinking about how I will curate my own work, how I will install it, and what I will need hardware I’ll need, plinths or pedestals, that kind of construction stuff. Curating feeds my art practice; I am constantly learning from other artists, and I think that my art practice lends to curating. As an example, as an artist, I make both discrete objects and immersive installations. We featured a show at AVA in the spring titled Understory, which was thematic in both nature and political stories. I really wanted to feature a large installation in the West gallery, so I invited my friend Marcie Scudder to make a paper sculptural form to stretch across the ceiling. I loved that the piece dipped down and nearly touched the heads of the audience. I think it was the cornerstone of the show; it really nailed the thematic content, but in a subtle way.
EF: I love hearing the direct connection between your art-making and themes for shows here at AVA. Do you consider the audience when you curate a show? What role does the audience play?
SE: I think about AVA’s audience and the broader audience. I know that AVA’s audience appreciates seeing new work from regional artists they know. So, it’s helpful to curate varied time slots: artists in AVA’s network, and some unknown artists.
SE: That’s an interesting question because many of the shows at AVA are considered “solo shows,” but what I like to do is build a narrative bridge between them so that all the artists showing in one time slot are working together to communicate a broad theme to the audience. For instance, our first show of 2025 spoke about humanity. Mark Lorah’s paintings were visceral, large-scale works that the audience could approach in a bodily way, experiencing them with multiple senses. Cynthia Atwood’s fiber sculptures were playful and corporal; the colors, textures, and shapes worked well with Mark’s paintings because his palette and shapes were similar to Cynthia’s sculptures. And also, Mark often uses fabric collaged into his paintings. So, there was a commonality between two seemingly different bodies of work. In the next gallery, Heidi Broner’s realist paintings depicted people working. Their body language mimicked the shapes used in both Mark’s and Cynthia’s work. In the Mayor gallery, Chris Papa’s sculptures depicted fragmented bodies, pulling the thread of the body, handmade, labor, and (uniquely) human traits. And, that they were made of such interesting materials, he uses manufactured and organic detritus, this idea of materiality was threaded back into Mark and Cynthia’s work.
EF: I think that was the first exhibition I worked on with you, and I remember having a similar discussion about the thread between each gallery and body of work.
EF: Do you see yourself continuing to work this way for each time slot? Or what is one vision you have for future shows at AVA?
SE: I’d really like to build more thematic or topical group exhibitions into the schedule for the main galleries. Personally, I love to imagine poetic themes that reflect our culture. I love that AVA can be a soapbox for activism, but in a way that touches people in nuanced ways. Discourse is the word today, right? We need and want to communicate our passions or causes and then hold conversations in a safe space. Art galleries can be the impetus and ideal medium for dialogue, exchange, and change. I think group shows are exciting because they give more artists opportunities to show in the main galleries. Plus, it’s an opportunity to build a larger audience, and that’s our goal: to reach more people.
EF: That’s a great vision! I think AVA has a bright future. Do you have any final parting thoughts or words?
SE: The artist is a cultural producer, the storyteller of this moment in time. Making art is uniquely human; I think society must honor the handmade and advocate for artists by showing up and supporting them for their talent, ideas, ingenuity, labor, and courage. If we lose sight of the importance of art, we risk losing humanity. I know that sounds a bit heavy, but it’s true.
I think there is more opportunity for audience and collector engagement. I have a few ideas, but I’d really like to hear from the audience about what they’d like AVA to offer.
The 2026 AVA exhibition schedule is now live! We’re excited to announce a range of shows in our main galleries. As always, the shows will feature a range of media – painting, photography, and sculpture. New to this year’s programming is a performance and workshop series led by choreographer Rachel Bernsen. For the annual Juried Exhibition, AVA has invited Bennington Museum curator Jamie Franklin. Annual exhibitions featuring work from local high school students and the AVA members’ holiday show will anchor the calendar.
Additionally, we’re delighted to announce new programming surrounding the exhibitions. A lecture series on topics like outsider artists, comic illustration, and museum theory, and workshops hosted by some of our exhibiting artists.
