The Georgia Museum of Art (GMOA) at the University of Georgia announces the hire of three staff members: Laura Valeri, associate curator of European art; Michael Lachowski, public relations specialist; and Sage Rogers, events coordinator. The three new hires began working at the museum this April.
Valeri received a master’s degree in art history from the University of Texas at Austin in 2011; she graduated from Indiana University in 2007 with bachelor’s degrees in art history, French language and literature and studio art, with a minor in Italian language and literature. At the University of Texas, she received the Dorothy Jean Krueger Graduate Fellowship and the Jack G. Taylor Memorial Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Fine Arts. She also received the Robert E. Burke Art History Award from Indiana University.
Valeri previously held paid curatorial internships in the department of prints and drawings at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin and at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y. She also held a collections internship at the Bausch and Lomb Corporate Archive in Rochester, N.Y.
Primary among Valeri’s responsibilities as associate curator is the study of the life and work of Catalan-American artist Pierre Daura (1896–1976), including the contextualization of his oeuvre and career. The Pierre Daura Center at GMOA initiates and promotes the exhibition and study of Daura’s works and directs the museum’s programming in European art: research, exhibitions, publications and acquisitions.
Lachowski received a bachelor of fine arts degree in photography from the University of Georgia in 1979. He co-founded the Athens band Pylon and was its bass player and graphic designer during the band’s active periods in the early and late 1980s and mid-2000s. He founded the creative services agency Candy in 1996 and publishes the culture magazine Young, Foxy & Free in Athens, Atlanta and Savannah.
Lachowski, a board member of the Athens Institute for Contemporary Art (ATHICA), has actively participated in the Athens cultural scene as an exhibiting artist, filmmaker and DJ and has initiated ideas for art exhibitions. He co-founded Athens’ Flicker film group in 1991. His primary responsibility at GMOA is to generate participation and awareness by disseminating information about exhibitions, events and scholarship.
Rogers graduated from the University of Georgia in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature and from Brandeis University in 2010 with a master’s degree in museum studies. She has completed several internships, including one for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and is currently pursuing her doctoral degree from UGA in art education. She serves as the volunteer education coordinator for ATHICA.
Rogers’ experience in event planning includes working for Epting Events in Athens; serving as the programs assistant for Harvard University’s Houghton Library; and assisting the executive director of the Dorchester Community Center for the Arts in Boston with development and education events. At GMOA, Rogers is in charge of planning and managing museum events and facilitating rentals of museum event spaces.
For more information, including hours, see http://www.georgiamuseum.org or call 706.542.GMOA (4662).