From typewriters and teacups to architectural models and advertising graphics – R. Craig Miller has collected them all. But his time in Colorado is coming to a close.
The Denver Art Museum’s curator of architecture, design and graphics since 1990, is leaving to form a similar department at the Indianapolis Museum Art, the Denver institution announced today.
Miller, a former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, took a small group of existing pieces and built it into an internationally significant decorative arts and design collection with about 11,000 objects.
“Denver is now known as one of the most vital centers in the United States for the design arts,” Miller said in a statement. “It has been a great honor to be a part of the exciting projects at the Denver Art Museum.”
In addition to enlarging the department’s holdings, Miller also organized 27 exhibitions, including “US Design 1975-2000” and “Masterworks: Italian Design, 1960-1994.”
Lewis Sharp, director of the Denver Art Museum, who recruited him to Denver, called Miller’s departure a “big loss.”
“When I look at the collection he has built here, it’s probably one of the largest, finest 20th-century decorative-arts collections in the country,” Sharp said.
He said that Miller’s departure would also be difficult on a personal level, because the two were in graduate school togethere and were on the staff at the same time at the Met.
“He’s one of my oldest personal friends . . . So, our lives are intertwined both personally and professionally,” Sharp said.
Miller will remain at the museum through early September to complete work on a catalog titled, “EuroDesign 1985-2005.” The accompanying exhibition will be shown in Indianapolis and could possibly tour to Denver.
A search for Miller’s replacement will begin almost immediately.
“As soon I get my legs under me, we’ll sit down and think about a job description and try to move forward pretty aggressively,” Sharp said.
