Lives of Consequence
Suzette Lane McAvoy ’80
Executive Director and Chief Curator, Center for Maine Contemporary Arts
Suzette Lane McAvoy ’80 is the executive director and chief curator of the Center for Maine Contemporary Art (CMCA), a nonprofit organization advancing contemporary art in Maine through exhibitions and educational programs.
With more than 30 years of experience in the art history field, McAvoy joined the CMCA as director in 2010, when the museum was in the midst of financial difficulties. Between McAvoy’s leadership and assistance from individual donors, private foundations, and the museum’s board, the CMCA not only rebounded financially but has created a new education program for families and children, broadened its audience and outreach, and built a new gallery space.
The $5 million, 11,630-square foot CMCA, whose fundraising and construction McAvoy oversaw, is located in Rockland, Maine, and features roughly a dozen exhibits each year and more than 100 artists with strong connections to Maine.
As curator, McAvoy selects featured artists and, together with them, develops the exhibition program. She looks “for work that’s new, cutting edge. I’m really looking for work that can expand the conversation, our idea of what art is and can be -- that’s what keeps me going, that belief in the power of art.”
McAvoy enrolled at William Smith as a tentative political science major, but after an introductory art history course with Professor of Art and Architecture Elena Ciletti, she “never looked back.”
“That first year at William Smith is what really introduced me to art history,” says McAvoy. By the time she graduated, she had completed an independent study in which she curated a sculpture exhibition that showcased the work of Geraldine Carr Hamlin.
“Working directly with the artist and objects really cemented what I wanted to do,” she says.
After earning a B.A. in art history, McAvoy spent a year at the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History, in the Objects Processing Facility, photographing, writing condition reports, cataloging everything from Nancy Reagan's ball gown to Muhammad Ali’s robe.
“It was a big eye-opener to the world of museums,” she says, though the experience taught her “that I preferred to work in smaller institutions, where I got to do a lot of different things. Since that time, I’ve been more of a generalist, spreading my interests over more topics and more activities.”
McAvoy earned her M.A. in museum studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program at the State University of New York Oneonta, where she focused on American painting and fine art, and developed her interest in American folk art. She has lectured and written extensively on the art and artists of Maine, and has organized national traveling exhibitions of the work of Louise Nevelson, Alex Katz, Kenneth Noland, Lois Dodd, Karl Schrag and Alan Magee.
Prior to joining the CMCA, McAvoy served as chief curator of the Farnsworth Art Museum, also in Rockland. Before moving to Maine in 1988, she was the director of the University of Rhode Island Art Galleries. She has also worked at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University.