Meet Barbara Young

Today we’d like to introduce you to Barbara Young.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Barbara. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
The beginning of my career as an art librarian and curator was in 1976, when the Miami-Dade Public Library System hired me to initiate its Artmobile Service. The Artmobile was a joint venture of the library and Southeast Banking Corporation. It was a 30-foot long “museum on wheels” painted on the outside with dramatic black and white zebra stripes surrounding huge tropical flowers by artist Lowell Nesbitt. The interior had track lights and fabric walls. Annually it carried six or more exhibitions of original artworks to libraries, schools, festivals, businesses, and galleries. Early on I was fortunate to work with art librarian and artist Margarita Cano. We exhibited artists like Jeanne Claude and Christo, Robert Rauschenberg, Elizabeth Catlett, Raymond Saunders, and others. We also had wonderful participation and support of the South Florida artists.

After working with the Artmobile, I began to curate exhibitions throughout the library’s many neighborhood facilities. I also coordinated system-wide adult programs working with musicians, dancers, authors as well as small business and tax programs. Some of the other artists that I worked with at that time were Ed Ruscha, Mildred Howard, Sam Gilliam, and Howard Bingham with his photographs of Muhammed Ali (one of the last public signings that Ali did was probably at this library exhibition). Purvis Young was a regular visitor and participant in library projects. In 2000, I worked with The Miami Herald art critic emeritus Helen Kohen to establish the library’s Vasari Project, an archive of the visual arts in Miami from 1945 onward.

An artist that I met through the library was sculptor Robert Huff. He was one of Miami’s important visual artists – his career spanned the community’s pre- and post Basel eras. Helen Kohen referred to him as a “colorist, architect, inventor, chart maker, tracker.” She pointed out that while his works were often named for places, they were really emotions, states of mind. As an artist, he participated in national and area exhibitions as well as library exhibitions. He was the recipient of public commissions. He was a source of conservation information for the Artmobile. As an educator, he was generous in promoting and encouraging his Miami Dade College students to use the library services for reference and exhibition possibilities. We were together for thirty-two years until he passed away in 2014.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Overall I have had wonderful times. It has been so exciting to see the art community grow and change throughout the years. Of course, funding is always a challenge for not-for-profits and public libraries. Bumps in the road are a given. And there have been times I very much wondered about what I was doing. Family, friends, books, pets, going to the Everglades, driving through the mountains, or making cookies have gotten me over rough spots.

Please tell us about Barbara Young.
I am proud of exhibitions that I curated over the years especially the theme-based projects that celebrated diversity and commonalities; the development of a timeline of Miami Art History; the Vasari Project art archives, and the Permanent Art Collection for the Miami-Dade Public Library System; and the conservation of the library system’s original Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. Recently, I am very pleased with coordinating one-person exhibitions of Robert Huff’s work at the Miami-Dade College Museum of Art and Design, the Museum of Art-Deland, Arturo and Liza Mosquera’s Art-at-Work, and his inclusion in group exhibitions at Hollywood Art and Cultural Center and Bridge Red as well as Under the Bridge. Extremely happy with the publication of a book by Letter16 Press, “Robert Huff: Cross Section,” hardcover 216 pages, with essay by Beth Dunlop Pulitzer-nominated architecture critic for The Miami Herald, author of fifteen books, and Alicia Patterson Fellow. The publisher, Letter16 Press has just released “Shtetl in the Sun, Andy Sweet’s South Beach 1977 – 1980” which is receiving wide national attention.

“Robert Huff: Cross Section” presents almost a half a century of Huff’s drawings, constructions, paintings, sculpture, and public commissions. He drew inspiration from the natural world of landscape and the man-made world of architecture. As art historian, art professional, curator, and Huff’s first art dealer Robert Sindelir says in the book, Huff “was an avid boater and traveler whose work reflected whatever environment he encountered from Stiltsville or Fowey Rocks to North Africa, England, or Russia.” With the extreme development Huff witnessed in South Florida and other locals, as well as the coal industry practices that he saw in Appalachia, he was very concerned about ecology and the future of the country and planet. These concerns can be tracked as the lightness and sometimes playful feelings of the early work becomes darker and more poignant over the years. Also, I am happy about placing Robert’s work in several museum collections including the Lowe, PAMM, Museum of Art – Deland, Museum of Art and Sciences Daytona Beach, and with the US Department of State Art in the Embassies collection.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Future plans have to do with Robert’s work – am coordinating other exhibitions in public, private, and commercial spaces. The book, “Robert Huff: Cross Section,” was a small edition, and I am in contact with academic and museum libraries about adding to their collections. The book is available at Books and Books, Miami’s amazing independent book dealer and from Letter16 Press at http://www.lettter16press.com.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://letter16press.com/products/robert-huff-cross-section

Image Credit:
Sculpture photo: Robin Hill

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