May 19, 2021

Stephen Nowlin Steps Down as Vice President of ArtCenter Exhibitions and Director of the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery

Recognized for nearly 30 years of service and dedication to the exploration of art, design and science


ArtCenter College of Design Provost Karen Hofmann today announced that Stephen Nowlin plans to retire from his position as vice president of ArtCenter Exhibitions and director of the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery on June 30 of this year. ArtCenter Senior Curator Julie Joyce will serve as interim vice president of ArtCenter Exhibitions as the College defines the next chapter of department leadership and curatorial staffing.

Stephen Nowlin, who received his MFA at ArtCenter in 1978, has served as the director of the Williamson Gallery since its founding in 1992 working closely with then-College President David Brown, Trustee Alyce Williamson and architecture firm Frederick Fisher and Partners to transform an atrium within the iconic Ellwood building at the College’s Hillside Campus into a 4,600 square-foot exhibition space. For nearly 30 years, Nowlin has brought world-class exhibitions to ArtCenter, inviting students, faculty, staff and the general public to engage in a discourse about the disciplines taught at the College as well as the intersection of art and science.

As an extension of his responsibilities. Brown appointed Nowlin to serve as art director and producer of ArtCenter’s first fully functional website from 1997 through 2001. Working with alumna Francesca Murphy (BFA 95, MFA 01), Nowlin launched the site to critical acclaim including recognition as one of only two websites featured in the 2000 Graphis Annual.

Nowlin’s curatorial emphasis and writing focuses on science and art as evidenced by numerous exhibitions he’s brought to the Williamson Gallery, including SKY (2020), pondering the provincial and universal elements of space as viewed from Earth; MOONS (2018), the art, science, and puzzlements of 200 solar system moons; ECLIPSE (2017), contemporary thoughts and objects in celebration of the Great American Eclipse; UNCERTAINTY (2016), art, science, and the poetics of provisional knowledge; and REALSPACE (2014), a reflection on the nature of pictorial space and the rise of science in the 19th century.

Beyond art and science, under Nowlin’s leadership the Williamson Gallery has worked with outside curators showcasing an array of art and design related themes, including TOMES, a collection of artist books; GARB, a collision of wearable images, art, object, fashion and costume (both 2019, guest-curated by John David O'Brien); Deborah Irmas' This Is Not A Selfie (2018, with LACMA curator Eve Schillo), photographic self-portraits; Urbanature (2016, guest-curated by Constance Mallinson), exploring the eroding boundaries between nature and the city; OutsideIn (2015, co-curated with Ann Field and James Daichendt), a dual-campus, street art exhibition that resulted in two outdoor murals at ArtCenter’s South Campus location; and Ray Eames: In the Spotlight (2014), which celebrated the iconic Ray Eames, who formed a design partnership with her husband, Charles (curated with Eames' granddaughter Carla Atwood Hartman).

More recently, Nowlin has been integral to formalizing the ArtCenter Exhibitions program. With new galleries available to the College, including the Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery at South Campus and ArtCenter DTLA, he saw an opportunity to unify these public-facing curated spaces while maintaining a distinct mission and vision for each venue. In support of this effort, Nowlin has built an incredible team, including Senior Curator Julie Joyce, ArtCenter DTLA Program Director Christina Valentine, head preparator John David O’Brien, and Gallery Assistant John Whittet. In addition, site foreman Curtis Noel and an experienced on-call crew accomplish sophisticated gallery installations. The ArtCenter Exhibitions team works in close collaboration with Gloria Kondrup, executive director of the Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography, and her team to spark conversation around the most pressing issues of our times. Together, they’ve effectively persevered in the face of the pandemic, continuing to mount virtual and window-facing exhibitions while looking toward the future and our eventual return to campus (as detailed in this Dot magazine article).

“The significance of Stephen’s long-term service to the College cannot be overstated,” said ArtCenter President Lorne M. Buchman. “He has helped define ArtCenter within the City of Pasadena, the greater Los Angeles area, the science community and the artworld itself. We don’t often think of his role purely as an educator, but without a doubt we’ve all learned so much from his curatorial work, his brilliant essays, and from his passion about the intersection of art and science. Indeed, Stephen has taken us on a collective journey to the moon and back again several times over—and ArtCenter is a more grounded and distinguished institution because of it.”

In his role, Nowlin has helped steward ongoing relationships with several individuals, peer institutions and community organizations, including Fulcrum Arts, Caltech, ArtCenter100, Pasadena Art Alliance, San Marino League, and the City of Pasadena’s Cultural Affairs Division.

Among Nowlin’s significant contributions to the local arts and culture scene is the creation of Radical Past in 1999, a five-venue exhibition initiated with Jay Belloli, then-director of gallery programs at the Armory Center for the Arts, in which private shuttles ferried guests to opening receptions taking place simultaneously across the city. The Radical Past model of a collaborative event was repeated by the group in 2000, and called ArtNight Pasadena. It continued to grow in scope and was eventually adopted by the City’s Cultural Affairs Division. Now a biannual event, this public/private partnership features more than 20 venues across the city with up to 30,000 visitors.

Earlier this year, Nowlin helped secure a grant from the Getty Foundation to prepare for the next edition of the region-wide arts initiative Pacific Standard Time, scheduled to open in 2024. While Nowlin is retiring from his full-time position, he will continue to serve the College in an advisory capacity for special projects, including fulfilling his role as project director and co-curator of Seeing the Unseeable: Intersections in Data, Science, Art and Design, the tentative title for ArtCenter’s Pacific Standard Time exhibition.

About ArtCenter Exhibitions: ArtCenter Exhibitions includes the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery at the Hillside Campus in Pasadena above the Rose Bowl, the Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery, the Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography Gallery and the Hutto-Patterson Exhibition Hall at the South Campus a mile from Old Pasadena, and ArtCenter DTLA Gallery in downtown Los Angeles. These curated spaces embody ArtCenter's institutional will to understand artistic thinking and design strategies as levers in promoting social advancement, the pursuit of humanitarian innovation and use of critical inquiry to clarify objectives and truths. Using the lens of contemporary art and design, the mission of ArtCenter Exhibitions is to ignite emotional resonance, provoke intellectual dissonance and conjure unexpected pathways of thinking.

About ArtCenter: Founded in 1930 and located in Pasadena, California, ArtCenter College of Design is a global leader in art and design education. ArtCenter offers 11 undergraduate and seven graduate degrees in a wide variety of industrial design disciplines as well as visual and applied arts. In addition to its top-ranked academic programs, the College also serves members of the general public through a highly regarded series of year-round extension programs for all ages and levels of experience. Renowned for both its ties to industry and its social impact initiatives, ArtCenter is the first design school to receive the United Nations’ Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status. Throughout the College’s long and storied history, ArtCenter alumni have had a profound impact on popular culture, the way we live and important issues in our society.

Contact:
Teri Bond
Director of Media Relations
ArtCenter College of Design
teri.bond@artcenter.edu
626 396-2385

Photo of Stephen Nowlin in front of art in the Williamson Gallery.
Stephen Nowlin at the Williamson Gallery’s 2018 exhibit Moons, image courtesy of Stephen Nowlin