 "Photo: Jordy Wagoner/The Daily Texan")
 "Photo: Jordy Wagoner/The Daily Texan")
The soft, rhythmic click-clack of heels breaks the silence within the Austin Museum of Art as Andrea Mellard moves from one gallery to another, quietly discussing the concepts behind each work of art and how it has been placed within the space.
Mellard, assistant curator of the museum, spends many of her days writing grants for public programs, meeting with the public to promote the museum, planning exhibits and visiting local artists at their studios, surveying inspiration for future shows.
“One of a curator’s jobs is to go and look at art,” Mellard said. “Which I think is pretty nice.”
Known for displaying primarily modern and contemporary art, the museum has become a fixture within local and national art communities, incorporating works from private collections, local artists and traveling exhibitions.
“We think about what fits our audience, what would people in Austin be excited to see,” she said. “We always want to bring something fresh to the table.”
Mellard cited artist Chuck Close as one of her personal favorites, as she is always intrigued by the way the artist creates large-scale portraits of his friends and contemporaries.
“I have always been so impressed and overwhelmed with the variety of ways he has explored the human face,” she said. “He’s an artist whose work I’ve really been excited about for a long time.”
The museum’s current exhibition of Close’s work will end Nov. 8. The traveling exhibit shows the multiple ways in which the artist has used photography to create his signature large-scale portraits. Various daguerreotypes, digital picture prints and 8-foot high digital tapestries hang throughout the museum, demonstrating the imposing power of photographic narrative.
“The tapestries take about six months to make, and they have up to 250 colors woven in them, even though they look black and white,” Mellard explained.
Though the museum has displayed a large number of well-known artists, Mellard’s enthusiasm for the work of local artists is clear. Mellard said she’s excited about the museum’s New Works program because it offers many opportunities for Austin artists, particularly art students, to showcase their work in a formal setting.
“I think visitors will be excited to see what artists in their community are capable of doing,” she said. “There aren’t many opportunities for Austin artists to show their work locally, so we try to facilitate that here.”
Mellard received a master’s degree in American Studies from UT and has held a number of positions working with museums and the arts, including work as a docent in the Harry Ransom Center and with the National Museum of American History.
However, she emphasized that the majority of her work takes place behind closed doors. She determines the public’s different interests and how to best incorporate interactive learning within exhibits.
“We try to bring in a variety of media and artists with different backgrounds, while also figuring out what is available to us,” Mellard said. “With some works we have to ask, ‘Can it fit inside the door’ or ‘Can it be on view in front of visitors for a long time?’”
Mellard works closely with Michaela Black, the museum’s associate director of education, and the two make sure to always find a professional means of incorporating learning within the museum. Mellard said about 10,000 school children visit the museum each year.
“Because we’re a smaller museum, we don’t have a lot of rules and regulations, which means we can be more flexible with teachers and field trips,” Black said. “There’s never a dull moment here.”
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