2026 Juror's Talk
The juror's talk is an eagerly anticipated opportunity for artists to learn more about their craft from the juror’s discussion of show selections.
We are honored to have Dr. Carol McCusker as our juror this year
For thirteen years, Dr. Carol McCusker has been the Curator of Photography at the Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida, Gainesville, where she has curated twenty-nine exhibitions to date. Standouts are Aftermath: The Fallout of War in response to the 2014 Syrian civil war (it won a National Endowment for the Arts grant and Warhol Foundation Award), and Shadow to Substance, co-curated with Prof. Porchia Moore, a response to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Before arriving in Florida, McCusker was Curator at the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego for nine years where she curated over thirty-five exhibitions and wrote a roster of essays for numerous artists’ catalogues. And she was Adjunct Professor at the University of San Diego and the University of California, San Diego, and staff writer for Color and Bl & Wh magazines.
McCusker received her B.F.A. in studio art and art history at Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in art history with an emphasis on the history of photography at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.
In 2009, she was invited to curate at the Lishui Photo Festival in China where her exhibition of photographs by L.A. photographer, Stephen Berkman, won the festival’s First Prize. She was Juror for the prestigious International Center of Photography Infinity Award/New York. And has juried the Clarence John Laughlin Award for the New Orleans Photo Alliance, and reviewed portfolios for the Griffin Museum of Photography, FotoFest/Houston, Palm Springs Photo Fest, Critical Mass/Portland, and Atlanta Celebrates Photography, where meeting new and mid-career photographers has been essential to her exhibitions and professional growth.
Writing, teaching and curating from photography’s complete history defines McCusker’s enthusiasm for the medium’s inspiring creative range and ever-changing technology beginning with William Henry Fox Talbot’s 1840s calotypes to cellphone videos and AI imagery.
The juror’s talk will be at 10:30 a.m., Sunday morning, July 12, 2025, in The Georgine Clarke Alabama Artists Gallery, 201 Monroe St, #110Montgomery, AL 36104
Alabama State Council on the Arts
Now in its 8th year, the Montgomery Photo Festival (formerly called the Society of Arts & Crafts/Stonehenge Gallery Photo Competition) is presented by the Society of Arts & Crafts (SAC's), a non-profit organization committed to the advancement of art education and art appreciation. The informal Montgomery area photo group called the "9" and the staff at SAC's are supplying the volunteer labor to make this event happen.
Alabama Humanities Alliance
The juror's talk is an eagerly anticipated opportunity for artists to learn more about their craft from the juror’s discussion of show selections.
We are honored to have Dr. Carol McCusker as our juror this year
For thirteen years, Dr. Carol McCusker has been the Curator of Photography at the Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida, Gainesville, where she has curated twenty-nine exhibitions to date. Standouts are Aftermath: The Fallout of War in response to the 2014 Syrian civil war (it won a National Endowment for the Arts grant and Warhol Foundation Award), and Shadow to Substance, co-curated with Prof. Porchia Moore, a response to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Before arriving in Florida, McCusker was Curator at the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego for nine years where she curated over thirty-five exhibitions and wrote a roster of essays for numerous artists’ catalogues. And she was Adjunct Professor at the University of San Diego and the University of California, San Diego, and staff writer for Color and Bl & Wh magazines.
McCusker received her B.F.A. in studio art and art history at Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in art history with an emphasis on the history of photography at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.
In 2009, she was invited to curate at the Lishui Photo Festival in China where her exhibition of photographs by L.A. photographer, Stephen Berkman, won the festival’s First Prize. She was Juror for the prestigious International Center of Photography Infinity Award/New York. And has juried the Clarence John Laughlin Award for the New Orleans Photo Alliance, and reviewed portfolios for the Griffin Museum of Photography, FotoFest/Houston, Palm Springs Photo Fest, Critical Mass/Portland, and Atlanta Celebrates Photography, where meeting new and mid-career photographers has been essential to her exhibitions and professional growth.
Writing, teaching and curating from photography’s complete history defines McCusker’s enthusiasm for the medium’s inspiring creative range and ever-changing technology beginning with William Henry Fox Talbot’s 1840s calotypes to cellphone videos and AI imagery.
The juror’s talk will be at 10:30 a.m., Sunday morning, July 12, 2025, in The Georgine Clarke Alabama Artists Gallery, 201 Monroe St, #110Montgomery, AL 36104
Alabama State Council on the Arts
Now in its 8th year, the Montgomery Photo Festival (formerly called the Society of Arts & Crafts/Stonehenge Gallery Photo Competition) is presented by the Society of Arts & Crafts (SAC's), a non-profit organization committed to the advancement of art education and art appreciation. The informal Montgomery area photo group called the "9" and the staff at SAC's are supplying the volunteer labor to make this event happen.
Alabama Humanities Alliance
This program/project has been made possible by grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the Alabama Humanities Alliance.