Claire Kovacs, curator of Binghamton University Art Museum, appointed director of galleries for NYSCC at Alfred University

Kovacs will join Alfred University from the Binghamton University Art Museum, where she has served as curator of collections and exhibitions. Recent exhibitions during her tenure in Binghamton have included an investigation of gender and its histories in asylums (Michal Heiman), histories and speculative futures of e-waste (Nathaniel Stern), Latinx celebrations of joy and play as modes of resistance (Miguel Luciano and Hiram Maristany), and histories of punk design, fashion, and music.

Kovacs’ work at Alfred University will span the New York State College of Ceramics, focusing on art centers sustained within both the Inamori School of Engineering (the Paul Vickers Gardner Glass Center, and the Kyocera Museum of Fine Ceramics) and the galleries of the School of Art and Design. Her curatorship within both the Inamori School and the SOAD embraces the original spirit of intersections between art and engineering envisioned by Charles Fergus Binns, the first director of the New York State School of Clayworking and Ceramics, which evolved into the NYSCC at Alfred University.

According to the NYSCC announcement, Kovacs emphasizes anti-racist, queer, and feminist practices that center community knowledges and histories, trauma-informed praxis, and a culture of care.

Kovacs participated in the 2018 Getty Leadership Institute's NextGen program and the NEH/Newberry Library Summer Institute on Art and Public Culture in Chicago. She represents the Southern Tier on the Museum Association of New York's Board of Directors. 

 “I am honored and excited to join the NYSCC team,” Kovacs says. “I look forward to building upon the fantastic work underway to engage our communities and imagine collaborative ways to strengthen these strong foundations in the galleries and museum.”