A new installation at the Montclair Art Museum will transform thousands of pieces of the museum’s discarded printed materials into a large-scale work visitors can walk through.
“Kate Dodd: You’re Invited!” opens Sept. 19 and features a site-specific installation by Orange-based artist Kate Dodd. The work is made primarily from materials generated by the museum over the years, including invitations, educational booklets, fundraising materials, art history books, curatorial essays and exhibition catalogues.
Installation view of Kate Dodd: You’re Invited!, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ (on view Sept 19, 2026). Courtesy of MAM and the artist. Photo: Gail Stavitsky.
Dodd assembled thousands of paper strips into a web of quilt-like patterns draped over an arched structure. The installation encompasses the museum’s Laurie Art Stairway and curves upward across multiple windows.
Words and phrases including “You’re Invited,” “Join Us!” and “Support MAM” are incorporated into the work alongside the names of artists, donors, curators and exhibitions and more than 20 images of works from the museum’s collection.
Installation view of Kate Dodd: You’re Invited!, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ (on view Sept 19, 2026). Courtesy of MAM and the artist. Photo: Gail Stavitsky.
Artists represented include Philip Guston, Robert Henri, Lily Martin Spencer, George Inness, Elsie Driggs, Charles White and Tom Nussbaum, as well as Native artists.
Dodd said the installation offers “an opportunity to highlight the Museum’s history, iconography, and generosity to the community in combination with the evolving meaning of this information over time.”
Dodd, a resident of Orange, creates temporary and permanent site-specific installations and has completed public art commissions in New Jersey and elsewhere. Her work has been exhibited at museums, galleries and colleges around the country.
Her recent projects include the 2024 exhibition “Kate Dodd: New Work” at the Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton. She received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts in 2020 and has participated in several artist residencies, including at MacDowell. She earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Pratt Institute in 1983 and a master’s degree in fine arts from Columbia University in 1990.
The exhibition, curated by Gail Stavitsky, the Montclair Art Museum’s chief curator emerita, will remain on view through Aug. 6, 2027.
Who’s reporting on Essex County? We are.
Get the news that matters — for free in your inbox.