Land Conservation Through Art Installation: Amy Williams Monier, Curator + Co-Founder, Connemara Conservancy

In this episode, we speak with Amy Williams Monier, the co-founder and curator of Connemara Conservancy in Plano, TX. Connemara was founded in 1981 by Amy and her mother, Frances Williams, as one the first land trusts in Texas. 

At the suggestion of her mother, Amy invited artists to create work that celebrated the land's beauty that often resulted in monumental works. Over the years, it became famous for its pioneering installation art program that Amy curated its closure in 2002. During the 21-year run, the meadow attracted visitors from around the globe and was influential in the careers of many successful installation artists. 

Amy discusses the challenges of creating an installation art program, land conservation, and how Connemara was very much of its time. 

This episode is the first recording of Artrovered, via Zoom on April 23, 2020. 

Before starting her work at Connemara, Amy helped produce the inaugural edition of Baltimore Artscape in 1981. It was working with artists there that she was first introduced to installation art. When she returned to Dallas the following year, she helped run 500x, one of Texas's oldest, artist-run cooperative galleries. Her experience working with artists and organizations in both places helped her build Connemara's art program. 

Contemporary reviews of Connemara describe a bucolic union of art and community. In 1984 Janet Kutner, of the Dallas Morning News, wrote, "In Connemara's casual setting, there is nothing intimidating about these works. Visitors can move around their perimeters; some sculptures allow viewers to walk into or through them. Several pieces invite touching. One work creates musical sounds." 

The article continues quoting that year's sculpture coordinator Charlene Marsh:

"Ms. Marsh, Who has spent more time with the Connemara exhibit then anyone beside the artists, sees it as a "mini-synopsis of what's happening in sculpture today." Many of these artists see themselves primarily as builders, she says, in that they like to have physical, hands-on involvement… The Connemara exhibit also suggests what Ms. Marsh calls, "the plight of the serious contemporary sculptor," who is "hungry" for a place to show his work. The unwieldy character of sculpture, and the expenses involved in making and storing it, virtually prohibit artists from making pieces of this scale unless they are commissioned for specific sites.…Obviously, one reason artists like to show at Connemara is that their works can be seen to such advantage in the open landscape.

Kutner, Janet. Plano's Connemara showcases sculpture in rolling landscape, Dallas Morning News, April 15, 1984.

Learn more about Connemara Conservancy: http://connemaraconservancy.org/wordpress/

Music credit: Maurice Ravel's String Quartet in F major - II. Assez vif, très rythmé produced by the Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum (issued under a Creative Commons License).