Glens Falls, NY – The Hyde Collection announces Dr. Derin Tanyol, a nineteenth- through twenty-first-century art specialist, has been named Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art. She will oversee The Hyde’s contemporary exhibition programming and modern art collections. She begins in the new role today, October 24.

Tanyol has spent fifteen years in the museum, gallery, and arts administration field. She has curated or produced more than sixty exhibitions, including contributions to exhibitions at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College and the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz. Her breadth of experience extends beyond contemporary art to include nineteenth-century American and European painting and printmaking, art of the Woodstock Art Colony, and the American Arts & Crafts movement.

“Derin plays an important role in how The Hyde Collection defines the art of our time when museums around the world are rethinking collections and making way for more women and people of color,” said Norman Dascher Jr., The Hyde Collection CEO. “It is our responsibility to build an institution and a curatorial program of equity and inclusion and celebrate and share our rich modern and contemporary collection.”

In August of 2016, The Hyde Collection announced it received its largest donation since Charlotte Pruyn Hyde bequeathed her home and artwork to establish the Museum in 1952. The Feibes & Schmitt gift doubled The Hyde’s Modern and Contemporary art holdings, positioning the Museum as a regional hub for postwar art. A new gallery devoted to Modern and Contemporary art, aptly named the Feibes & Schmitt Gallery, opened in June 2017. For more than four decades, the late Werner Feibes and James Schmitt amassed a world-class art collection that aligned with their tastes and interest in non-objective art, Pop art, abstract art, and Minimalism.

“Between the creation of the new Modern & Contemporary curatorial line at The Hyde and the museum’s visionary Reimagine initiative, The Hyde is charging forward with making the museum experience more inclusive and relevant,” said Tanyol. “I look forward to working with the staff and board to create shows that will highlight the superlative collections at The Hyde and introduce audiences to some of the most important artists working today.”

Tanyol’s curatorial accomplishments include solo shows by major contemporary artists Nina Katchadourian and the Starn Twins and a retrospective on French Surrealist Georges Malkine. She joins The Hyde after many years as Director of Exhibitions and Programs at the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild. This multidisciplinary arts organization hosts exhibitions, an artist-in-residence program, classes, and performances. She curated or produced eight exhibitions annually of contemporary and historic art, including three outdoor sculpture shows on Byrdcliffe’s historic grounds.

Tanyol significantly raised the organization’s regional profile, secured funding for new exhibition technologies, spearheaded the digitization of Byrdcliffe’s collection of furniture, paintings, and works on paper, and produced an expansive array of programs, including artist talks, scholarly lectures, and performances. Tanyol oversaw the addition of several important pieces to Byrdcliffe’s permanent collection of works related to the Byrdcliffe Art Colony, founded in 1902.

In addition to her curatorial and gallery directing expertise, Tanyol has taught art history at Vassar College, Wesleyan University, and the State University of New York at New Paltz. She has published on nineteenth- and twentieth-century French and American art and lectured at the Milwaukee Art Museum, the New York State Museum, the Frick Collection, and many public conferences. Tanyol received a Fulbright Scholarship, a Samuel H. Kress Foundation Fellowship, and a Bourse Chateaubriand for two years of research in Paris. Tanyol received her Ph.D. from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and her B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University.

Photo at top: Dr. Derin Tanyol, a nineteenth- through twenty-first-century art specialist, has been named The Hyde Collection’s Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art. Photo provided by Katie Alessi, Trifecta Collaborative Marketing Director & Founder.