Kimberly Camp

Kimberly Camp (September 11, 1956) is an artist and museum leader known for her one-of-a kind dolls and paintings, and leading influential museums and museum projects.

She was the founding director of the Smithsonian Institution Experimental Gallery (1989–1993), president and CEO of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History (1994–1998) in Detroit, president and CEO of the Barnes Foundation (1998–2005) in Merion, Pennsylvania, and director of the Hanford Reach Interpretive Center, a project of the Richland Public Facilities District.

Her paintings and dolls have been featured in more than 100 exhibitions in the United States and internationally. Her dual career as an artist and museum leader administrator has earned her acclaim in both fields.

Biography

Early life and education Kimberly Camp was born on September 11, 1956, in Camden, New Jersey, the only child of Dr. Hubert Camp, an oral surgeon and jazz trumpeter, and Marie Dimery Camp. Surrounded with the arts during her childhood, her exposure to the arts was augmented by the world class museums in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Camp was enrolled in private painting lessons and participated in her first exhibition at the age of 12. She later studied painting with Austrian painter Alexandria Laimer and Friends School Mullica Hill as part of the school's first graduating class. Camp attended American University from 1973 to 1974, then transferred to University of Pittsburgh, where she earned her bachelor's degree in studio arts and art history.

Camp earned a Master of Science degree in arts administration from Drexel University in Philadelphia in 1986.

Early arts administration career In 1983, Camp created a mural program called the Artistic Design Project, a first for the City of Camden. Camp participated in the creation of the Camden Annual Art Exhibition, at Rutgers University Camden Center for the Arts Stedman Gallery. Camp completed the vision of the gallery to have each exhibition signed by its creators, and used post-it notes to gather public comments within the gallery. Camp created the administrative framework for the gallery, which hosted the National Air and Space Museum's Principles of Flight exhibition, Finding Ones Way by the Exploratorium, "Etiquette of the Underclass" by Antenna Theater, and other exhibitions. The gallery also served as a model for diversifying Smithsonian museum attendance. The gallery closed in 1995.

Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History In 1994, Camp became executive director then president and CEO of the Museum of African American History in Detroit, Michigan. Camp oversaw the expansion of the museum and construction of the new 125,000 square foot facility which opened to the public in 1997 as the largest Black museum in the world. Weeks before its opening, the museum's name changed to the Charles Wright Museum of African American History and Culture in recognition of its founder, Dr. Charles Wright. The Barnes Foundation was created as a school in 1925 by Dr. Albert C. Barnes. It has the largest collections in the world of works by Renoir and Cézanne, and more Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse paintings and drawings than all the museums in Paris combined. With approximately 9000 works of art, the Barnes is the first purposefully multicultural collection of decorative, folk and fine art in the United States, including international artists Claude Monet, Tintoretto, Giorgione, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, and American painters William Glackens, Horace Pippin, Charles and Maurice Prendergast.

Camps research into the Foundation's history was critical in winning court approval to relocate the foundation to Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Under her leadership, the Foundation's operations were professionalized to include conservation and a full inventory of the collections, cataloguing of the Foundation's archives, restoration of Kerfeal and the Merion arboretum, and restoration of the education programs. Camp lectures at colleges, universities and museums based on her research, to dispel entrenched beliefs and mythologies about the Foundation and its founder Barnes, a chemist and philanthropist who remained a staunch advocate for ending racial discrimination and social justice. Camp's manuscript titled Defending the Dead, includes a detailed account of the professionalization of the Foundation and its legal challenges during her tenure.

The Foundation was moved to Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway in 2012.

The Hanford Reach Interpretive Center Camp moved to eastern Washington in 2007 to become the first executive director of the Hanford Reach Interpretive Center, a project of the Richland Public Facilities District. The center was created to tell the story of the Manhattan Project's Hanford nuclear site where the world's first atomic bomb was created and the story of the Hanford Reach National Monument. When the initial site was rejected by indigenous communities, Camp led the effort to construct the center on the banks of the Columbia River with their approval along with the US Army Corps of engineers, the US Federal Highways Administration, US Fish and Wildlife, state, and local agencies. After groundbreaking for the new facility in 2011, Camp announced her retirement.

Galerie Marie Camp founded Galerie Marie in 2013, named for her late mother Marie Dimery Camp, in Collingswood, New Jersey. The gallery features Camp's paintings and dolls and the work of over 200 national and international artists and craftsmen. Camp's studios are also located on the property. Camp's papers, a collection of biographical material, writing, art, sketchbooks and recordings are being accessioned by the Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art.

Teaching and consulting From 2019 to 2021, Camp served as a co-curator for A New View Camden public art project of the City of Camden with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Camp teaches art history, art administration and museum leadership at several regional colleges and universities including Rutgers Camden and Drexel University. From 2015 to 2016, she served as senior lecturer at Lincoln University where she created its first undergraduate museum major program. Camp is a regular consultant for non-profit organizations on strategic planning, leadership transition and best practices in governance.

Camp was part time lecturer at Rutgers University Camden Campus from 2020 until 2022. Previously, Camp taught at Lincoln University, Camden County College and Drexel University. Camp's dolls extend beyond the African-American experience to include a wide range of interests, cultural knowledge and travel.

Dolls Camp has described her dollmaking process as intuitive, and "[growing] off her work table."

Camp draws on her own spirituality, with imagery from mysticism and the occult, and world religions. Curator Philip Collins described her dolls as being "possessed with a visual excitement that expresses an aura of mystery and rare beauty." After being featured in Essence, Camp began selling the dolls internationally.

One-of-a-kind dolls In 1989, Camp began making one-of-a-kind dolls. Camp uses materials from world cultures to craft dolls with layered significance. Her materials include raffia, animal teeth and antler, textiles, beads and cowrie shells. Her dolls have appeared in The New York Times, FiberArts, The Village Voice and Smithsonian.

Exhibitions Her paintings and dolls have appeared in over a hundred solo and group exhibitions.

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

2021–2022: "Spirit Guides," Filo Sofi Arts, Cranford, NJ 2022: Solo exhibition, Filo Sofi Arts at Prizm Art Fair, Miami 2018: “The Links: Kimberly Camp,” Noyes Museum, Stockton University 2014–2015: Solo exhibition, Zora Neale Hurston Museum 2007–2008: Stories: Paintings and Dolls by Kimberly Camp, African American Museum in Philadelphia 2006: African American Dolls by Kimberly Camp, Black Academy of Arts and Letters, Dallas, TX 1996: Solo Exhibition, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI 1994: Solo Exhibition, CRT/Craftery Gallery, Hartford, CT 1994: Solo Exhibition, Harrison Museum of African American Culture, Roanoke, VA 1994: Solo Exhibition for the Emerging Forms Series, International Sculpture Center, Washington, DC 1993: Fabric Figures, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA

Group exhibitions

2021: Shrine to Beauty. Filo Sofi Arts, Cranford, NJ 2012: Freedom to See Ourselves, Washington State University 2009: Women Who Walk the Path, Washington State University 2007: From Taboo to Icon: Africanist Turnabout, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Icebox Gallery 1995–1996: International Women's Art, World Bank Art Society 1993–1995: Uncommon Beauty in Common Objects: The Legacy of African American Craft Art, National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center 1993–1995: Traveling exhibition, American Craft Museum; African American Panoramic Experience; Museum of Afro-American Life and Culture; Afro- American Fine Art Museum; Renwick Gallery of American Crafts, National Museum of American Art 1993–1995: Traveling exhibition, American Museums of Quilts and Textiles; National Afro-American Museum; Junior Black Academy of Arts and Letters Quiltworks '93; Frank Hale Cultural Center 1993–1994: Touch: Beyond the Visual, National Museum of Women in the Arts; The Hand Workshop 1992: Dolls! by African-American Artists, Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem State University 1991: Yes Sir. That's My Baby. African American Dolls. Banneker-Douglass Museum,

Public collections

J.B. Speed Art Museum Camden Historical Society Reader's Digest Manchester Craftsmen's Guild

Private collections

Faith Ringgold Judith Jamison Delroy and Nashormeh Lindo Abbey Lincoln Juliette Bethea Anne Wollman Cynthia Reese Anne d'Harnoncourt Joseph Rishel

Workshops and residencies

Baltimore Museum of Art Afro-American Historical and Cultural Society Museum Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square Anacostia Community Museum and Renwick Gallery - Smithsonian Institution Harrison Museum of African American Culture African American Museum in Philadelphia Indiana University of Pennsylvania Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Banneker-Douglass Museum, Annapolis