Meet the Staff: Andrew J. Gianopoulos
When I saw the Monet painting for the first time, March/April 2010
I was fifteen when I went to Rome with a group from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. We toured the city’s vast array of churches, museums, and ruins over a six-day span. The day we spent at the Vatican changed my life forever.
A childhood spent reading every book I could on the Civil War and weekend family trips to places like Fort Sumter, South Carolina, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the Rendezvous in Vincennes ignited my passion for history. That passion spilled into a curiosity for the Renaissance. Several months before going to Rome I read Ross King’s Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling and was enthralled by the stories and drama behind the creation of one of the world’s greatest pieces of art.
After winding through all the galleries of the Vatican Museums we finally stood at the door of the Sistine Chapel. We walked in and I couldn’t stop staring at the ceiling. For ten to fifteen minutes, I was unconscious of anything going on around me and completely captivated by Michelangelo’s frescoes. The guards managed to shoo me outside but while my group started to walk down the street, I told myself I have to find a way to feel like that for the rest of my life.
We landed in Evansville a few days later and I told my mom what happened. “Let’s go talk to John,” was her reply. John Streetman, Director Emeritus, and my mom served on St. Paul’s vestry together. One day after school we went to the museum, and I told John everything. He said without hesitation that I needed to be a curator. Interning for Tom Lonnberg the next three to four months further convinced me that being a curator was what I was supposed to do in life.
After graduating from Castle High School in 2008 I went to Ohio University in Athens, Ohio as a history major. Rome certainly opened up the world of art to me but at this point my passion was still history. However, a weekend trip to Cincinnati and a stop at the Cincinnati Art Museum made me fall in love with art. Seeing Claude Monet’s Rocks at Belle-Ile, Port-Domois (1886), made me realize how intoxicating an arrangement of colors and brushstrokes can be. I went back to Athens and switched my major to art history the next day.
When I graduated from OU in 2012, I took a year off and then enrolled in the art history master’s program at the University of Cincinnati. Working as the research assistant for Professor Kate Bonansinga, Director, School of Art, DAAP, and interning for Dr. Esther Bell, Curator of European Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture and Dr. Julie Aronson, Curator of American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture, at the Cincinnati Art Museum opened my eyes to the dedication needed to be successful.
I received my first offer to be a curator from the Wetzel County Museum in New Martinsville, West Virginia in 2015. Within the first week I realized how important it is to build relationships with community members and build trust with the people whose stories you want to tell. Curating shows that people will care about was also an important lesson. Everyone has a million ways to spend their time but if we can tell engaging stories that allow people to understand the world around them, then we can get them to visit. That’s how I came up with the Wetzel County Hall of Fame, an exhibition series that celebrated a community member who achieved great things in their professional or personal lives. From there we developed exhibits such as Heroes and Villains: Comic Book Art, Prints from the WPA, and the artwork of Adam Cross.
I left West Virginia in 2017 for Bloomington, Indiana to be the exhibits manager at the Monroe County History Center. Exhibitions such asBreaking the Color Barrier: Bloomington’s Firsts,Women and RCA, andHoosier-in-Residence: T. C. Steele’s Franklin Hall Studiohighlighted the rich history of Monroe County with unique, authentic objects. After four a half years in Bloomington I got offered the chance to become the Virginia G. Schroeder Curator of Art at one of my favorite museums in the world. Since that day in John’s office, I’ve wanted to find a way to connect people to the same experience I had beneath the Sistine ceiling. Having the opportunity to do it at the place that inspired me sixteen years ago is something I’ll never take for granted.
Andrew J. Gianopoulos
The Virginia G. Schroeder Curator of Art