"Olfactory art is a field that has been overlooked historically. Its position today among art historians, museum curators, and even the general public is essentially equivalent to that of photography thirty years ago-virtually unrecognized as an art form in its own right," said Holly Hotchner, the Museum's Nanette L. Laitman Director. "MAD's mission is to examine contemporary creativity across all media-both traditional and non-traditional-and to deconstruct the hierarchical boundaries that have existed between artistic genres. The Center of Olfactory Art will be the first resource of its kind, focused on broadening
audience experience and understanding of the art of scent."
The Center's exhibition programming will focus on showcasing the work of major scent artists, such as Jean-Claude Ellena, Ernest Beaux, and Jacques Cavallier, and will explore key trends in olfactory art, including how synthetic molecules have revolutionized the
art form and the aesthetic, moral, and ecological issues faced over time in the reformulation of olfactory works.
The Center will serve as a public forum for lectures and workshops on issues related to olfactory art and the role of scent in daily life. In the Open Studios at MAD, visitors will have the opportunity to meet scent artists, observe the creation of new fragrances, and discuss aspects of scent as an artistic medium and cultural phenomenon.
The Center of Olfactory Art will also launch partnerships with design schools and other academic institutions that include the study of scent, culture, and design.
"I am honored to be joining MAD's interdisciplinary curatorial team and to be leading the museum's new Center of Olfactory Art," said Chandler Burr. "Olfactory art speaks to the sense of smell just as visual art speaks to the sense of sight, and visitors will experience works at the Museum by smelling them. The Center will present a range of interactive
programs that will explore the groundbreaking innovations of scent artists today and the
artistry and craftsmanship inherent in the creation of olfactory art."
As MAD's first Curator of Olfactory Art, Burr will work with the Museum's senior curatorial staff to develop exhibitions and programs that illuminate scent as an art form. The first exhibition planned, The Art of Scent, 1889-2011, will allow visitors to experience ten
seminal works by some of the greatest scent artists of the late-19th, 20th and early-21st
Burr will curate a series of lectures open to the public in the MAD Theater that will bring together scent artists with major creative figures in the scent industry. He will also lead interactive lectures "in which participants will learn about various raw materials that constitute fragrances, such as Ugandan vanilla, Peruvian pink peppercorn vanilla, Peruvian pink peppercorn, Laotian benzoin, and Rwandan geranium, and will curate a series of lectures and workshops that bring the work of distinguished scent artists to life in MAD's Open Studio and artist-in-residence programs.