Sandra H. Olsen, Ph.D.
Director, UB Art Galleries
Sandra H. Olsen is Director of the University at Buffalo Art Galleries: UB Art Gallery and UB Anderson Gallery. Her responsibilities include general administration of the galleries, care and management of the university’s collection and archives, supervision of museum studies internships and graduate student research projects and forming collaborations with faculty to develop interdisciplinary exhibitions and academic conferences. For more than 15 years, Dr. Olsen was Adjunct Professor at UB and taught the Museum Studies graduate seminar.
Before coming to the UB Art Galleries, Dr. Olsen was for twenty-one years director of the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University. There she formulated the collection, curated exhibitions, and planned the museum’s construction.
Dr. Olsen has extensive experience coordinating interdisciplinary collaborative projects. She initiated and organized the public art project, Stations, which commemorates families who sheltered enslaved Africans during their passage to freedom in Canada on the Underground Railroad. The five-year project was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts as one of the two best projects in the nation and the best example of a successful collaboration between a museum and its community. She also received the William Wells Brown Award from the Afro-American Historical Association of the Niagara Frontier, Inc. for outstanding contributions toward the preservation of Afro-American History.
Dr. Olsen founded and developed Phases I and II of the Empire State Partnership project with Lewiston-Porter School District, which developed a curriculum that focused on improving critical thinking and writing in tenth-grade English and Art. The project was one of four museum/school partnerships selected for a PBS documentary film produced by Thirteen/WNET, entitled partnerships, and broadcast during fall of 1999.
Most recently she initiated UB’s collaboration with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Millennium Art Museum, Beijing, to organize The Wall: Reshaping Contemporary Chinese Art, the largest exhibition of contemporary Chinese Art to travel beyond China.
Dr. Olsen has a B.A. in History from the University of Wisconsin, Madison;
Master’s Degrees in Art History and Education from Boston University; and a Ph.D. in Art History from Boston University. She has served on several Boards, including the Museum Association of New York and Exhibition Alliance. She was a panelist for the Museum Aid Panel of the New York State Council on the Arts. Currently, she is a grant reader for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal grant agency, and a Trustee for Oracle Charter School in Buffalo.
Sandra Q. Firmin
Curator, UB Art Gallery
Sandra Q. Firmin has been Curator of the UB Art Gallery, Center for the Arts, since 2003. She holds a Master’s from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (2002) and was awarded a Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative Fellowship at Arcadia University Art Gallery, during which time she organized Oxydationen: performance works of Vera Lehndorff a.k.a. Veruschka and Holger Trülzsch (2003). Selected solo exhibitions that she has organized at the UB Art Gallery include: Patricia Cronin: The Domain of Perfect Affection, 1993-2003 (2004); Janaina Tschäpe (2005); Adam Cvijanovic: Niagara Falls (2006); and Joe Brainard: People of the World: Relax!! (2007). Kim Jones: A Retrospective, which she co-curated with Julie Joyce, was accompanied by the catalogue Mudman: The Odyssey of Kim Jones, co-edited with Joyce and published by MIT Press (2006). Selected thematic exhibitions she has organized have explored the elasticity of emptiness, the thresholds of perception, and the physical and cultural parameters of the white cube; the act of watching to investigate personal and detached experiences of domestic spaces; and the legacy of proto-cinematic devices like magic lanterns and zoetropes in contemporary art. She is currently working on a retrospective for Allan D’Arcangelo and a ten-year survey exhibition of Artpark’s laboratory-like summer residency program from 1974 through 1984, which was located in Lewiston, New York.
Her primary responsibilities include conceptualizing, researching, and implementing a schedule of five to six exhibitions a year. Additionally, she enters the UB Art Gallery’s dynamic programming into the general economy of the campus by collaborating with different departments and student groups. She also coordinates a series of public gallery talks, artists’ lectures, and multidisciplinary symposia that explore a wide range of issues pertinent to contemporary culture.
Elizabeth Lyman
Finance & General Operations Manager, UB Art Galleries
Elizabeth Lyman was born and raised outside of Boston, Massachusetts. After receiving a B.A. degree from Vassar College, Elizabeth worked for four years as a Development Associate at the International Center of Photography in New York City, where she honed her fundraising and event-planning skills. Eager to explore her passion for food and wine, she took a break from the art world for stints at fine culinary and wine establishments in New York, Southern California, and the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Elizabeth recently relocated to Buffalo and is happy to be working in the arts again, dividing her time between the Galleries and the restaurant world.
As Finance and General Operations Manager at the UB Art Galleries, Elizabeth is responsible for handling event logistics for gallery rentals and opening receptions, supervising student Gallery Attendants, and managing the galleries’ financial systems.
Kitty Marmion
Secretary, UB Art Gallery
A long-time resident of the Buffalo area, now living in Niagara County, Kitty enjoys the arts. She has been working at UB Art Galleries as a secretary/administrative assistant for ten years and has seen lots of changes take place, which have made the galleries an interesting environment in which to work! Kitty Marmion processes and administers all the purchases, expenditures, and disbursements for the gallery and serves as liaison to other university officers and departments. She assists to make sure that a wide range of needs are met, both for the staff and for artists.
Mary Moran
Assistant Director, UB Anderson Gallery
Mary’s background includes her work as long-time assistant to David Anderson, President, of David Anderson Art Gallery. She served as Gallery Manager from
November 1987 to March 2000. Upon Mr. Anderson’s donations of the Gallery and a substantial collection of major modern artworks to the University, Mary became
Assistant Director of UB Anderson Gallery, and she has served in this position from March 2000 to the present. Mary was born and raised in Niagara Falls, NY. She is a graduate of Daemen College, Amherst, NY, with a degree in Language. Mary serves as the liaison between donor David Anderson and UB Art Galleries. She coordinates the archival research materials for Anderson Gallery Special Projects. She also assists in establishing and maintaining development plans with artists, dealers and collectors of Martha Jackson and David Anderson.
Ginny O’Brien Lohr
Curator of Education, UB Anderson Gallery
Education Curator Ginny Lohr develops education events for educators, students, families, and the community, such as guest artist lectures/workshops; professional development sessions for teachers; and gallery tours and thematic activities based on temporary exhibitions and on the permanent collection. She is the museum education internship supervisor for students in UB Visual Studies, education, and health-related profession. Her community outreach responsibilities include directing and implementing two expressive visual arts programs: one for Erie County Medical Center in-patients; the second for individuals with cerebral palsy and other medical challenges, who receive services from Aspire of WNY, Inc.
Ginny O’Brien Lohr, M.F.A, M.A., R.N., is an arts educator, exhibiting studio artist, and registered nurse. She has published in Surface Design Journal, Fiber Arts Magazine, and several nursing research and education journals. She has taught courses in design and fiber art at Daemen College and Buffalo State College. Lohr has used her extensive clinical experience to design an expressive visual arts program for teaching in a healthcare setting. Lohr recently developed and implemented an art and medicine pilot elective course “The Artist’s Remedy to the Physician’s Perspective” for University at Buffalo medical students, with funding support from the Johnson & Johnson/SAH Partnership. Teaching these visual arts programs fulfills the community outreach component of her responsibilities as Education Curator for UB Art Galleries.
Patrick Robideau
Preparator/Installer, UB Art Gallery
Patrick Robideau is a native of Niagara Falls, New York. He earned his B.F.A. in sculpture in 1989 from SUNY Purchase. He has received critical acclaim for his large-scale sculptures and installations. He works closely with exhibiting artists to install and prepare their work for exhibition in UB Art Gallery.
Bob Scalise
Assistant Director for Exhibitions and Collections, UB Anderson Gallery
As the Assistant Director for Exhibitions and Collections for the UB Anderson Gallery, Robert Scalise manages all exhibition installation, collections care, and special projects. He has organized numerous exhibitions from the Gallery’s permanent collection including Antoni Tapies: Graphic Works (2005), Abstractions (2006), and Selections from the Permanent Collection (2007). He also serves as an advisor on numerous installations of artwork around campus including our emerging public art projects.
A graduate of Daemen College, Robert began his career as the Exhibitions Coordinator for the David Anderson Gallery in 1996. His knowledge of the collection, the gallery, and its rich history has helped UB Anderson Gallery move forward in its mission.
Robert lectures and teaches workshops on archival art presentation methods, packing, and shipping to exhibiting artists and students. He has been featured on the Exhibition Alliance’s nationally distributed instructional DVD on museum practices and proper art handling and installation techniques.
Active in the local art community, he maintains membership in the American Association of Museums and serves on the Alliance Art Committee for Roswell Park. He has served as guest juror for several area arts organizations and maintains an active career as a visual artist.
Jim Snider
Staff Assistant, UB Anderson Gallery
As an administrative assistant, Jim Snider's background in computers is handy in keeping the network up-to-speed, and the networked computers running. Jim also manages the reception desk, and trains students to work the desk. Jim works closely with the Finance and General Operations Manager of the UB Art Galleries. He also works with outside contractors and volunteers on the extensive and ambitious Martha Jackson Oral History Project. Jim lends his experience when needed, in the areas of event planning, photography, graphic design, research, public relations, and archiving. Jim appreciates the opportunity to work in the gallery's main office, one of the most beautifully-appointed offices in the UB system, as well as being coworker to some of the smartest, most dynamic people he's ever known.
Debra Steckler
External Affairs Officer, UB Art Galleries
Debra Steckler holds undergraduate degrees from the University at Buffalo in English, Philosophy, and Fine Art. She received an MFA from Hunter College. She has worked as an editor on museum web sites, catalogues, pop culture magazines, and mass-market fiction and non-fiction trade books. She promotes the galleries and their events to the university community and to the public.
Paul Wilcox
Maintenance Helper, UB Anderson Gallery
Paul Wilcox has been working with UB Anderson Gallery since 2002. He assists the gallery manager with special projects and installation of art works, and maintains the gallery so that everything runs well.
Nancy Wulbrecht
Registrar, UB Art Galleries
Nancy Wulbrecht was born and raised in Buffalo, New York. She attended SUNY Brockport and the University of Delaware for her degree in studio art and art history. Her first museum registrar job, from 1980 to 1984, was at the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum in Winterthur, Delaware, where she was trained in museum registration methods by the then-chair of the Registrars Committee of the American Association of Museums and the University of Delaware's art conservation program. She moved on to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where she was registrar for outgoing loans from 1984 to 2002. Nancy was able to travel extensively as courier for many of the major exhibitions organized internationally by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 2002, she moved back to Buffalo for family reasons and has acted as registrar for the University of Buffalo Art Galleries since then. Her responsibilities include development and management of the permanent collection database, organization of shipping and insurance arrangements for traveling exhibitions and supervision of art handling, condition reporting and collections care.