“TURNED AWAY”: This oil on canvas painting by Alan Goldstein is part of “(re)Frame: Community Perspectives on the Michener Art Collection,” on view June 18 through March 5, 2023, at the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pa.

The James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pa., presents “(re)Frame: Community Perspectives on the Michener Art Collection,” on view June 18 through March 5, 2023.

The exhibition is a museum-wide initiative inviting multiple viewpoints based on culturally specific interpretations. Applying new lenses to Michener’s collection, guest curators and visitors will explore artworks’ social and environmental contexts beyond academic Euro-American art history.

“Each person’s personal experience, cultural background, and professional and scholarly interests influence how they understand a work of art and we want to embrace these varied interpretations,” said Laura Turner Igoe, Michener’s chief curator. “There are many ways to look at an artwork.”

Eight guest curators — Joe Baker, Reg Hoyt, TK Smith, and youth members of Doylestown’s Rainbow Room — have selected works from the Michener’s permanent collection to reveal new stories about identity and the environment in the Delaware Valley region. Historical and contemporary art selected by the curators include works by Diane Burko, Daniel Garber, Elaine Galen, Alan Goldstein, Richard Kemble, Harry Leith-Ross, Joan W. Lindley, Jan Lipes, Tim Portlock, Herbert Pullinger, Edward W. Redfield, William A. Smith, Robert Spencer, Dox Thrash, and William Earle Williams, some of which have never been on view.

Several stations throughout the Museum’s galleries invite visitors to share their own interpretations and what they would like to see at the museum in the future.

Baker is an artist, educator, curator, and activist who has been working in the field of Native Arts for the past 30 years. He is an enrolled member of the Delaware Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma and co-founder executive director of Lenape Center in Manhattan. Baker is an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of Social Work in New York and was recently visiting professor of museum studies at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colo.

Hoyt is an associate professor at Delaware Valley University. He has been a faculty member at DelVal since 2006, where he is co-chair of the Animal Biotechnology and Conservation Department and the founder and chair of the DelVal One Health Working Group. Hoyt has over 25 years of experience in zoos and conservation, and he currently serves as president/CEO of Forest Partners International, a conservation nonprofit.

Smith (he/him) is a Philadelphia-based curator, writer, and cultural historian. His curatorial projects include “Roland Ayers: Calligraphy of Dreams,” the 2021 Atlanta Biennial exhibition “Virtual Remains,” and “Zipporah Camille Thompson: Looming Chaos.” His writing has been published in Art in America, the Monument Lab Bulletin, and Art Papers, where he is a contributing editor.

The Rainbow Room is an educational and empowering program for LGBTQIA+ youth and allies, sponsored by Planned Parenthood Keystone, and rooted in the Doylestown community since 2002.

The Michener Art Museum is located at 138 South Pine Street in Doylestown, Pa. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 12 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, call (215) 340-9800 or visit michenerartmuseum.org.