A new curatorial team has taken over the reins at the Cafesjian Art Trust in Shoreview.
Jill Ahlberg Yohe, a former longtime curator at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, is the CAT’s curator of modern and contemporary art, and Linnea Seidling, an art and glass historian who has overseen communications and events for the museum since it opened in 2022, is now the assistant curator of glass.
Kathie Cafesjian Baradaran, the museum’s founding trustee and daughter of the late philanthropist and art collector Gerard Cafesjian, has taken on the role of museum CEO. Previously, the role of curator and executive director were both held by Andy Schlauch, who quietly departed the museum in August 2024.
At left, Cafesjian Art Trust curator of modern and contemporary art Jill Ahlberg Yohe. At right, assistant curator of glass Linnea Seidling. Since opening in 2022, the Shoreview museum has showcased aspects of philanthropist Gerard Cafesjian’s personal collection. (Courtesy of Cafesjian Art Trust)
In its first two and a half years, the museum has gained a reputation for a series of popular and highly focused exhibitions showcasing aspects of Cafesjian’s personal collection, and as one of few museums in the country with a dedicated studio glass focus.
But now at the helm, Ahlberg Yohe and Seidling are aiming to broaden the museum’s presence to a variety of modern and contemporary art styles, they said during a joint conversation.
“There are a lot of private collections that are wonderful, but there are very few opportunities to shift what was a private collection into a museum collection,” said Ahlberg Yohe, who holds a doctoral degree in anthropology from the University of New Mexico. In making that change, she said, an institution takes on a certain responsibility to reflect and respond to the community in ways that are different from a private or personal collection.
“How are we going to fundamentally build something that is stewarding all of our collection and acquiring new things that complement our holdings, in ways that connect to the wider…conversations happening in the Twin Cities, in the region and nationally?” she said.
The museum is not stepping away from glass — far from it, Seidling said — but rather questioning the best way to elevate mediums, styles and movements that have historically been sidelined. It’s a thorny question: Might glass-specific exhibitions inadvertently contribute to the perception that glass art should remain separated from other art forms, rather than being in conversation with them?
“We have a lot of ideas about how to harness that strength in a different way, how to weave in our awesome glass collection with other media,” said Seidling, who before coming to the CAT was an assistant curator at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York, home to one of the world’s top glass collections. “Instead of having a glass show, or a painting show, or a textile show, (we are) creating exhibitions that put all of that together.”
And that goal — to “really uplift the artists on their own terms, rather than being defined by their medium,” as Ahlberg Yohe phrased it — is precisely her wheelhouse. When she left the Mia in Minneapolis last year, Ahlberg Yohe was associate curator of Native American art. One particularly groundbreaking exhibition under her leadership, 2019’s “Hearts of Our People,” included painted works, textiles, basketry, mixed-media sculpture and a custom-built car.
“I have heard over and over again how some visitors feel when they go into a museum, and it’s not always a great feeling — especially people who don’t see art that speaks to them, people who are told that art is something for elite people,” Ahlberg Yohe said. “I think we’re offering a contemporary space that feels intimate, warm, welcoming — and that you leave refreshed and feeling as if modern and contemporary art is for you.”
Currently on view at the CAT is “Echoes of Life: Paintings from the Collection,” which runs through Sept. 6.
Up next, a traveling exhibition called “Collidoscope: de la Torre Brothers Retro-Perspective,” is set to open in October as the first show under Ahlberg Yohe and Seidling’s leadership.
Entrance to the museum is free; guided tours must be booked online for Thursday and Friday visits but no reservations are required for Saturday visits. Closed Sunday through Wednesday.
Cafesjian Art Trust: 4600 Churchill St., Shoreview; 612-359-8991; https://cafesjianarttrust.org/
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