Next week, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut will launch the inaugural Aldrich Decennial, an exhibition in the style of other recurring surveys that is intended to take place every 10 years. The Aldrich has long been celebrated for its taste in the avant garde, offering numerous important artists the opportunity to stage major shows, and the first Decennial seeks to do this on a broader level. Titled “I am what is around me,” the show emerged from over 100 studio visits by chief curator Amy Smith-Stewart and curatorial and publications manager Caitlin Monachino. We caught up with Aldrich director Cybele Maylone to hear more about the exhibition, and how it fits into the institution’s broader programming and ethos.
We’re used to institutions organizing themselves around biennials and triennials. What does a decennial framework allow you to see that a two- or three-year cycle doesn’t?
The Aldrich Decennial is the brainchild of the Museum’s Diana Bowes Chief Curator Amy Smith-Stewart. Amy worked on Greater New York during her time as a curator at MoMA PS1, so she is really attuned to the idea of place-based recurring surveys. As a result, I think Amy knew when conceiving of the show that a two- or three-year cycle wouldn’t make sense for an exhibition of this kind, which examines the cultural community in a much smaller place and a place that doesn’t have the same kind of population change that a city does. Connecticut is very much the land of steady habits, so choosing the 10-year cycle made the most sense.
“The Aldrich Decennial: I am what is around me“
Venue: The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
Address: 258 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT
Through: Jan. 10, 2027
You’ve been at the Aldrich long enough to have left your mark on it. How would you say it’s changed the most in your eight years at the helm?
We’ve really expanded the Museum’s community during my tenure, and that’s something I’m incredibly proud of. We have grown our Board of Trustees significantly and have also doubled our membership. It’s been really gratifying to see how much enthusiasm and support there is for the Museum from individuals of all walks of life, from serious collectors to young families in our community. In addition, we renovated our Sculpture Garden to create a more inclusive and accessible space for art and the public, which opened at the end of 2024. That was a huge project for everyone at the Museum, from our Board to our staff, and created a free public space for art and nature for all of our visitors.
The art world spent years rewarding scale: bigger attendance numbers, bigger capital projects, bigger global visibility. What are the advantages of a smaller institution?
We are very lucky because being small is baked into The Aldrich’s DNA. The Museum’s original building—now home to our offices—had small galleries and the idea was that visitors could come to The Aldrich and have intimate, personal experiences with works of art. When our new building opened in 2004, domestically scaled galleries were key to the new design in order for intimate experiences to remain core to seeing art at The Aldrich. My older daughter went to Paris last summer and came back with a picture that I assume everyone takes at the Louvre—50 people standing between her and the Mona Lisa. That’s not The Aldrich experience.
The Aldrich has maintained a reputation for experimentation while also becoming more institutionally established over the last decade, two things that don’t always coexist comfortably. How have you maintained that balance?
Again, it goes back to that foundational commitment. While The Aldrich was built to create intimate experiences with works of art, it was also designed to be risk-taking and to give meaningful first opportunities to emerging and underrecognized artists. I am always motivated by our founder Larry Aldrich’s vision to put such a forward-looking museum devoted to contemporary art on the Main Street in small-town New England. We have a history of showing artists long before their work was widely known—Eva Hesse, Jeffrey Gibson, Elizabeth Peyton and Huma Bhabha all had early career presentations at the Museum. That said, we certainly want our work to be recognized in a larger conversation, which is driven by a desire to build a larger audience, consideration and awareness of the artists in our program.
A lot of institutions talk about “community” in ways that can feel abstract and performative. The Aldrich is located in a small town so the community probably feels quite close. What can you tell me about that community and how it’s evolved over the last 8 years?
The town of Ridgefield is central to who The Aldrich is. I come back to Lonnie Bunch, the Secretary of the Smithsonian, who said that museums shouldn’t be community centers but centers of community. Sure, there are things that we could do that 100 percent of people in the town would love (free ice cream!) but we are committed to our risk-taking mission while also taking the steps needed to make our community feel welcomed. Our Sculpture Garden project was driven by this in many ways—it was a gesture and an invitation to our local audience to join us and I think it has had the desired impact. In addition, this is a small town and I live here. I’ve worked at institutions in New York City where a certain significant segment of the audience is international tourists. Not so at The Aldrich! Our audience includes my kid’s teacher and they are going to tell me what they think of the new sculpture we installed on Main Street.
In addition, Ridgefield, and Connecticut as a whole, changed significantly during and after the pandemic with a large influx of new residents. This is something Amy really understood when conceiving of the Decennial. The new energy in the state will certainly be reflected in the exhibition and is definitely a part of The Aldrich’s growth over the last few years.
You spent most of your career prior to the Aldrich in New York City. What’s something that might surprise New Yorkers about Connecticut’s art scene?
That it exists! I grew up outside of Chicago in Evanston, IL and lived in New York City for many years—Connecticut was not a place I knew well at all. So it’s been incredible to learn about the state and understand not just how rich the artist community is here now, but how significant it’s been for centuries. While the Decennial will allow us to shine a light on just how vibrant the landscape is here today, we’re also trying to put the exhibition in a larger context about the state over time. There is a long list of important artists who have called Connecticut home.
The Aldrich is well known for giving artists their first institutional solo shows. Do you ever feel the weight of that responsibility? You have the potential to change an artist’s career overnight.
Absolutely. Artists place so much trust in the Museum when we work together. I know that Amy feels that responsibility deeply and takes great care of the artists we work with, and that commitment is shared by everyone on our team. That said, I think our focus is on supporting artists and encouraging them to take risks and try new things, as opposed to thinking about what a show will do for their “career.” We are really honored when an artist commits to working with The Aldrich, and we want to do everything we can to make the experience a positive and significant one.
Looking back, are there decisions that you’ve made that have felt relatively minor at the time but ended up permanently shifting the museum’s direction?
Maybe decisions related to hiring? I’ve promoted several excellent people during my time at The Aldrich and was also lucky enough to lure a former colleague from the City to join our staff, but with new hires and people you already know stepping into new roles, it can feel like rolling the dice and it’s hard to estimate just how significant their impact will be. Thankfully, these decisions have really paid off and the excellent team of people currently working together at The Aldrich has really helped to change the Museum for the better.
What do you hope audiences take away from the Decennial?
As with all exhibitions at The Aldrich, I hope our audience will leave the Museum with a sense of discovery. Amy and Caitlin Monachino, who is co-organizing the Decennial with Amy, did over 100 studio visits while putting the show together. The participating artists’ ages range from 30-80 and a number are showing in a museum for the first time. In addition, they live and work in places around the state and around a quarter were born outside of the United States. So, in addition to discovering artists, I am hopeful that the show will expand our audiences’ understanding of Connecticut as a place.
