Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1076820
72 BY BILLY FONG. PORTRAIT MISAEL RODRIGUEZ. SCHLEUNING STAR HOW ONE CURATOR IS BOLDLY RESHAPING AND REDEFINING THE DECORATIVE ARTS AT THE DMA. Sarah Schleuning S arah Schleuning and I have been making career pit stops at some of the more noted art museums around the country. We've both worked at institutions in Georgia and Florida. And, last spring, Schleuning joined the team at the Dallas Museum of Art as The Margot B. Perot Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Design. I, too, had a tenure at the DMA. An expert in her field Schleuning, oversaw the collection of decorative arts and design at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, where she was known for her expertise in forming relationships with contemporary designers and artists, and exploring how art and design can extend far beyond a museum's walls. During her time at the High, Schleuning organized and curated "Iris van Herpen: Transforming Fashion," which broke attendance records and landed on the museum's list of top 10 most-attended shows. The exhibition then traveled to the DMA in the summer of 2017 and had a similar popular response. Today, Schleuning is responsible for the DMA's decorative arts and design collection, internationally recognized as one of the premier collections in the United States. Its more than 8,000 works of art span six centuries, from the 15th century to the present. Highlights are found in the areas of European and American decorative arts, with special emphasis on 18th- century English silver; 19th- and 20th-century American silver and ceramics; and 20th-century design. Schleuning's role also involves the expansion of the museum's contemporary holdings, which have seen recent growth from gifts such as the Rose-Asenbaum Collection of more than 700 pieces of modern and contemporary studio jewelry, bestowed on the DMA by Deedie Rose, who acquired the collection of Viennese gallerist Inge Asenbaum in 2014. The stewardship, interpretation, and legacy of this renowned collection are now in Schleuning's thoughtful and capable hands. T he decorative arts have long been entangled in the debate over so- called high art versus low art. In recent years, many have realized that