By Kevin Heffernan
Step inside the art and fashion catalogue that is Kerry Wallin’s mind
We’ve posted in the past from the National Gallery of Art in DC. When in then capital, if you’ve got time for just one museum or gallery, make it NGA, even if you’ve seen it before. Outside of its stunning collection, shows and events, it’s special to us because our friend Kerry Wallin has been working there, in the Office of the Deputy Director/Chief Curator, since 2011.
Equipped with a degree in Art History from Canisius College and a Master’s in Arts Administration from Drexel University in Philadelphia, she’s one of the lucky ones who gets to directly apply her education and passion to her career as she takes advantage of her access to NGA’s collection of 145,000 works (only 3,000 are ever on display).
It was Wallin’s passion for fashion and its many correlations with the art world that led her to develop the @ngarunway account personally:
When I asked her how things came to be with the account, which boasts followers from the global fashion and art community, Wallin first cited places where this sort of cross-industry collaboration had made big waves, like the Mondrian Collection of French designer Yves Saint Laurent, a 1965 collection featuring six cocktail dresses inspired by the work of Dutch painter Piet Mondrian.
Additionally, NGA’s own I.M. Pei Pyramids (which were actually the inspiration for the pyramids at the Louvre in Paris!) inspired fashion from Carolina Ferrera:
“My formal education is in art history so I would say it is definitely an art first mindset, but the garments and costumes and textiles in the art were always a focus of mine. So identifying comparisons probably grew organically. I was always acutely aware of fashion and art from the Philadelphia Art Museum’s textile collection, the Brooklyn Musuem’s costume collection, and The Met’s Costume Institute (which now includes the Brooklyn Museum).
“I came to the NGA in 2011, and when I discovered the incredible collection NGA has, I really started to focus on comparing what was going on in current fashion to that collection. The NGA is the nation’s museum – it’s government. So it cannot officially come out as endorsing fashion shows or designers, or directly aligning its collection to other works, but I loved this idea too much, so I was able to do it myself on this personal account.”
Wallin only cites fashion design works that have direct relations, implied or literal, to NGA’s collection, in an effort to show off their collection’s relevance outside of its walls.
