Melberg, Jerald L. (interviewee)

Description

Long time Charlotte art gallery entrepreneur and curator, Jerald Melberg, reflects on his life and his professional involvement with the art community in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he served as a curator at the Mint Museum of Art for several years before opening the Jerald Melberg Gallery in 1983. Growing up in Anoka, Minnesota, Mr. Melberg describes his strict Baptist upbringing and his college years studying acting and theatre at Bob Jones University. Having changed his focus to art, Mr. Melberg moved to Charlotte in the late 1970s to become the curator of exhibitions at the Mint Museum of Art under the leadership of museum director Milton Bloch. He stresses his admiration for Mr. Bloch who he saw as an insightful leader and patient mentor. Mr. Melberg also describes how his own entrepreneurial spirit enabled him to maximize what was at the time a modest budget to bring major art works to the museum through collaborations with other museums. Working at the Mint Museum of Art allowed Mr. Melberg to observe and influence Charlotte's emerging art scene and to become closely associated with numerous contemporary American artists, most notably Romare Bearden, who he describes here in detail. Despite Charlotte's rapid growth and newly founded art museums and cultural centers, Mr. Melberg expresses his disappointment in what he characterizes as a lack of discernment in art in the community as a whole, noting that this is illustrated in corporate art and the city's architecture. Mr. Melberg's decision to leave the Mint...

Record Contributed By

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Record Harvested From

North Carolina Digital Heritage Center