Leaving My Dream Job for a New Dream 

It is hard for me to believe that it has been six months since I joined The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA. It is both an honor and a joy to serve as the new J. Sanford Miller Family Director. My first week was filled with the events surrounding the groundbreaking exhibition Maḏayin– what a special occasion with which to start my tenure at the University of Virginia! 

The opening of Maḏayin is a perfect example of exactly why I wanted to join The Fralin team. Maḏayin is a collaborative exhibition that represents more than seven years of hard work by the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection’s Director Margo Smith with her team, Australian colleagues, and artists from the Yolŋu community in Yirrkala. Bringing Maḏayin to The Fralin was the result of yet another partnership – the Kluge Ruhe team worked closely with The Fralin team for multiple years to mount this spectacular exhibition as part of the greater Indigenous Takeover in Charlottesville. 

This major undertaking is a vision of what’s to come with the new Center for the Arts at UVA. Once we move to the Emmet-Ivy Corridor, we will be joined with the Kluge-Ruhe under one roof. Thanks to the generosity of Tessa and Richard Ader in making the largest gift to the arts in UVA history – and thanks to the leadership of Vice Provost for the Arts Jody Kielbasa – a new future for the arts at UVA is just on the horizon. This exciting opportunity to envision an art center that joins the museums with the performing arts and foreground the visions of indigenous and underserved artists enticed me to leave what I had previously believed to be my dream job. 

In short, after fifteen years I left the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington DC for a new dream: to build a new museum from scratch to suit the needs of today’s audiences and our communities. Rather than retrofitting a historic building, we can build a state-of-the-art museum from the ground up. What an exciting moment in the life of the arts at UVA! All that’s left is the lead gift for the new museum, which I am working on closely with Vice Provost for the Arts Jody Kielbasa, Director of University Arts Development Cameron Mowat, and other University leaders. 

If I have not already, I look forward to meeting you in the coming months. As a close friend of The Fralin, I invite you to support us all the ways you can at this key moment in the museum’s history. Not only is this coming spring our 90th anniversary, but even more exciting is our  vision for the next 90 years! Join me on April 25th, 2025 as we celebrate the past and future of The Fralin at our upcoming anniversary celebration. Until then, see you at the museum! 

My very best, 

Karen 

Karen E. Milbourne, PhD  

J. Sanford Miller Family Director  

The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA