Denver, CO – October 8, 2025 – The Clyfford Still Museum (CSM) will host a reflective conversation during the program Reflections on Collaboration: Behind-the-Scenes of Tell Clyfford I Said “Hi” from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on October 30 in the Museum lobby. The event will feature a discussion between the co-organizers of “Tell Clyfford I Said ‘Hi’”: An Exhibition Curated by Children of the Colville Confederated Tribes, which is now on view at the Still.
During the talk, exhibition co-organizers Bailey Placzek, CSM curator of collections, Nicole Cromartie, CSM director of learning & engagement, and curatorial consultant Michael Holloman, enrolled member of the Colville Confederated Tribes and fine arts professor for Washington State University, will discuss their experience working in partnership with Colville youth and the ways the young curators’ contributions shaped the exhibition. The program will explore the relationship between Clyfford Still and the people of the Colville Confederated Tribes, the Museum’s evolving practice of co-curating with children, and the importance of collaboration and community voice in curatorial work at the Still.
Before the talk, the Museum galleries will be open from 6 to 6:30 p.m. The program is $5 for the public and free for Museum members. Registration is required to attend, and space is limited.
About the Presenters
Bailey Placzek is the curator of collections and catalogue raisonné research and project manager at the Clyfford Still Museum. She has been engaged in CSM’s curatorial program and collections research since before the Museum’s opening in 2011. She has given numerous talks at CSM, including The Secret Lives of Clyfford Still’s Paintings (2022), as well as at various local and national conferences, such as the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) and the National Art Education Association (NAEA). Other curatorial projects include Clyfford Still, Art, and the Young Mind (2022), A Decade of Discovery: Clyfford Still in Denver (2021–22), and Still: Elemental (2019). Placzek’s work focuses on advancing access to collections, promoting art’s ability to foster connections among humanity across time, and deconstructing museum work to make it more transparent, collaborative, and engaging. Placzek received dual BA degrees in Art History and Art from the University of Kansas and a MA in Art History from the University of Denver.
Nicole Cromartie is the director of learning and engagement at the Clyfford Still Museum. Her research interests include museum evaluation, sharing authority with children, fostering equitable museum–school partnerships, and understanding the impacts of museum experiences on our youngest visitors, from birth to 14 months. As a Getty Museum Scholar in the spring of 2025, she began work on a book about young children’s engagement with the arts in museums, which is currently in progress. In 2021, Routledge published her first book, Evaluating Early Learning: Planning for Our Youngest Visitors, which presents developmentally appropriate and culturally relevant practices for engaging young children and their families in museums. Cromartie is currently pursuing an EdD in Leadership for Educational Equity, Early Childhood Education at the University of Colorado Denver. She earned her MA in Curatorial Practice from California College of the Arts and her BA in Art History from the University of Florida.
Michael Holloman, parent, artist, curator, and fine arts professor, is an enrolled member of the Colville Confederated Tribes. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Native American art history and the studio arts at Washington State University while maintaining duties as the college’s coordinator for Native Arts, Outreach, and Education. His scholarship addresses the historic issues and visual record of Plateau settler colonialism and Native adaptation and self-assertion. Regarding Clyfford Still, Holloman stresses the aesthetic dimension of his work as being infused with a spiritual power that sustains familial and communal memory, while offering inspiration for a new generation.
About the Clyfford Still Museum
Designed specifically to display Clyfford Still’s art, the award-winning Clyfford Still Museum is home to nearly everything he created, approximately 3,125 pieces representing 93 percent of his lifetime of work. The Museum supports new artistic endeavors, inviting visitors to draw strength from Still’s art and life. At the Still, visitors will find a world-class collection gifted to the City and County of Denver, award-winning architecture, cross-disciplinary programs for all ages, and opportunities to explore their own creativity. Exhibitions stimulate curiosity, arouse emotions, and explore multiple perspectives. The Still invites visitors to refresh, recharge, and reconnect with joy. Connect with the Clyfford Still Museum on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or at clyffordstillmuseum.org.
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