James Merle Thomas is the inaugural executive director of the Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies, a museum and research center for art, media, and culture. A published scholar and curator of modern and contemporary art, he was previously an assistant professor of art history at Temple University. Thomas collaborated on the production of multiple large-scale contemporary art projects, including the Second Seville Biennial, the Seventh Gwangju Biennale, and the Third Paris Triennale. His role as executive editor of publications includes several anthologies of art and media, including working with artist Walead Beshty to produce Picture Industry, an anthology of the history of photography. Thomas's research is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Gallery of Art.
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More than beautifying our common spaces, public art has the capacity to stimulate conversation and to move us as a community. As debate continues over how we retell and commem...