Employee of the Month - March - 2022
Alyssa Torres - Museum Registrar, Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum
Awarded Wednesday, March 16th, 2022 via Zoom Virtual celebration. Alyssa was joined by President Jane Close Conoley, Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum Director Paul Baker Prindle, College of the Arts (COTA) Interim Administrative Services Manager Jen White, and numerous COTA and campus colleagues.
Alyssa Torres is a Museum Registrar in the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum. In her role, she tracks care for and safeguards every object in the Museum collection – a collection that is held in stewardship for all Californians.
Beginning in 2020, the Museum underwent a large-scale renovation which was recently completed in February 2022. Alyssa was instrumental during this project and her contributions are celebrated by Paul Baker Prindle, the Director of the Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum: “As we have worked as a team across several departments to build a new museum for our students, Alyssa has had the task of storing and moving thousands of exceptionally valuable and one-of-a-kind objects, coordinating photography of our collection, planning transportation from several sites across Los Angeles, moving 89 large paintings from a donor's home, traveling to Northern California to move hundreds of gifted art works, arranging loan agreements and rights and reproductions permissions, making condition reports of thousands of art works, and communicating with artists.
“Alyssa also manages the conservation of art works, which is complex, expensive, and high-stakes. She processes acquisitions of new art works and loans out of art. She monitors the security of our building and takes detailed measurements of visitor numbers, door access, and temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide. It's a big job any time, but during the pandemic, all of this monitoring, coordinating, and partnership with several dozen on- and off-campus partners has been exceptionally labor intensive ... Many professionals never have the chance to be part of a new museum build and reopening. Alyssa has led her department through this [incredible] growth opportunity with aplomb. Through this all Alyssa has been the picture of grace and professionalism. She knows her job through and through and, as a result, [makes] my job and the jobs of her co-workers so much easier. She is deeply collaborative and collegial.
“Finally, on top of all she is doing to help reopen this Museum after a [two-year] build during a pandemic, Alyssa has mentored multiple Getty Marrow interns (a program to resolve career pipeline impediments in our industry for emerging professionals of color), work study students, and junior staff members. I can't think of a professional who is more committed not only to her craft but to her workplace and home organization. I think the work she is doing for our students by mentoring and teaching them every day with patience, grace, and true commitment is deserving of recognition. She knows, as I do, that our all of our work is for our students and her actions demonstrate that.”