Barbara N. Young

Barbara N. Young is an art librarian, curator, and former Art Services administrator for the Miami-Dade Public Library System (MDPLS). During her tenure, she oversaw the Artmobile service and co-founded The Vasari Project, an archive of Miami's art history from 1945 onward, with art critic, historian, and writer Helen L. Kohen. Young is known for her role in documenting, preserving, and supporting the art world of Miami.

Education

Young received a Bachelor's degree in Art History from Florida State University and a Master's degree in Library and Information Science from Drexel University.

Career

Artmobile

Young began her career as an art librarian and curator in 1976, when the MDPLS hired her to initiate the Artmobile Service. The Artmobile was a 30-foot long "museum on wheels" that serviced Miami-Dade County and ran until 1992. The Artmobile's exterior design, a zebra pattern with large tropical flowers, was painted by Lowell Blair Nesbitt, to reflect South Florida's local environment. The van was donated to MDPLS by the Southeast Banking Corporation and used once a month to display artwork owned by the corporation and its branches for viewing by customers and the general public. The artworks on display included pieces by American artists, including Alexander Calder, Jim Dines, and Jasper Johns. As the Artmobile Librarian, Young coordinated exhibitions that toured the country for nearly two decades, handled publicity, special programs, the and selection of artwork.

MDPLS Permanent Art Collection

Young worked closely with Margarita Cano, who played a key role in establishing MDPLS's permanent art collection and designed a program of exhibitions and acquisitions of works by local artists. MDPLS's Art Services and Exhibitions Division maintains a permanent collection of over 7,000 works of art, including works on paper, photographs, paintings, artists' books, and small sculptures, with a focus on African American, Latino, and Miami artists. The permanent collection, along with the Artmobile program, were established in the 1970s to address the need for more exhibition venues in Miami-Dade County, particularly those that highlighted the work of local, African-American, and Latino/Latin American artists.

After working with the Artmobile, Young contributed to the growth of the permanent collection and curated exhibitions with emerging artists throughout MDPLS's branches and neighborhood facilities. She also coordinated system-wide adult programming and worked closely with artists, including Edward Ruscha, Mildred Howard, Sam Gilliam, and Howard Bingham.

In February 1982, Margarita Cano and Barbara Young first met with Christo and Jeanne-Claude. In June of that year, Cano and Young organized Surrounded Islands, Project for Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, Documentation Exhibition at the former Bayfront Park library location in Downtown Miami. The exhibition featured drawings of the concept, as well as swaths of the pink fabric used for the project, which were later donated to the Vasari Project. Cano and Young were also involved in the development of the project itself and helped the artists test the specialized fabric on the library roof to determine its durability.

Throughout her tenure as Art Services administator, Young was involved in organizing summer shows inviting artists to engage with objects and themes such as boats, shoes, library cards, and the alphabet. Some of that work was donated to the Library's permanent art collection afterwards.

In 1998, Young co-curated Touched by Aids with Cano and Kohen. The exhibition, organized by the Estate Project for the Artist with AIDS, which opened at Miami-Dade Community College's Centre Gallery, showcased the work of thirteen Miami-based artists who had died of AIDS, including Carlos Alonzo, Craig Coleman, and Juan Gonzalez.

Purvis Young

Young and Cano were early supporters of the artist Purvis Young. They provided him with art supplies and books and coordinated the commission of his mural Everday Life at the Culmer Overtown branch. They also introduced Purvis Young to local art scholars, collectors, and community members interested in his work.

The Vasari Project

The Vasari Project, a library collection dedicated to documenting, collecting, and preserving Miami-Dade County's art history from 1945 to the present, was conceived by Young and art historian and critic Helen L. Kohen in 2000. The Vasari Project, housed at the Main branch of the MDPLS, is named for Giorgio Vasari, Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer, who is best known for his work Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects.

The Vasari Project is a living archive that collects documentation, consisting primarily of printed matter and ephemeral materials that grows through contributions from artists, art professionals, exhibition spaces, galleries, institutions and private donors. It serves as a resource for ongoing research, scholarship, publications, artists' projects, exhibitions and events.

After twenty-nine years, Young retired from MDPLS in 2005.

Curatorial career and exhibitions

Young continues to curate exhibitions with artists, galleries, and collectors from South Florida and other locales.

She curated The Artful Book 2021, an exhibition of artist-made books by South Florida artists, at the Karshan Center of Graphic Art at the Museum of Arts and Sciences Daytona Beach. The Artful Book 2021 was an expanded version of The Artful Book 2019, presented in conjunction with the Miami-Dade Library’s Book Fair, and installed at LnS Gallery in Miami in 2019. The participating artists included Mario Bencomo, Pedro Hernandez, Barbara Neijna, Lydia Rubio, Donna Ruff, Cesar Trasobares, and Purvis Young.

Professional affiliations and recognitions

In 2012, Young was recognized at the fundraising event Miami Moments 2012, along with Cano and Kohen, for co-founding the Vasari Project to archive the history of visual art in Miami-Dade County.

Young is a member of the Florida chapter of ArtTable, professional organization dedicated to advancing the leadership of women and nonbinary professionals in the visual arts.

Personal life

Young met sculptor Robert Huff through MDPLS. Young and Huff married for twenty-seven until his passing in 2014.

Young continues to honor Huff's memory and legacy by coordinating one-person exhibitions of Huff’s work including Robert Huff: 47 Years curated by Carol Jazzar at the Miami-Dade College Museum of Art and Design (MOAD) in 2015 and Robert Huff: Retrospective at the Museum of Art - Deland in 2018. She's also facilitated Huff's inclusion in group exhibitions, including You Are Here at Dimensions Variable in 2019.

In 2018, Young authored Robert Huff: Cross Section, consisting of drawings, paintings, sculpture, and public artwork by Huff, with an essay by Beth Dunlop, Pulitzer-nominated architecture critic for The Miami Herald, and published by Letter16 Press. The book was conceived before Huff's passing by Young and Huff, along with Carol Jazzar, Huff's art dealer, and Kohen.