George Philip LeBourdais, PhD
George Philip LeBourdais, PhD

Hello! I’m a writer, curator and researcher. I craft unusual stories about art, technology and the human experience that inspire us to create a better world. 

 
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About Me

I’m the Consulting Curator for Digital Initiatives at the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA), the Digital Humanities hub at Stanford University. To give you a sense of what drives me, I make exhibitions like this, teach classes like this, and write things like this, this and this.

I earned my Ph.D. from Stanford in the History of Art & Architecture with a dissertation on the first photographic survey of the Arctic in 1869. My work explores how we represent experiences that defy normal description, like intense emotions, extreme environments and new technologies.

In my spare time, I love cycling, hiking and large format photography. With my college a cappella days behind me, I’m in a Moana-only cover band with my two-year-old daughter.

Education

Ph.D. History of Art & Architecture (Andrew Mellon Dissertation Fellow)
Stanford University

Ignite Certificate (Venture and Entrepreneurship)
Stanford Graduate School of Business

M.A. History of Art & Architecture (Annual Clark Prize Winner)
Williams College and the Clark Art Institute

B.A. Art History, French, Italian (Cum Laude, College Scholar)
Middlebury College

Relevant Experience

Consulting Curator for Digital Initiatives
Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis, Stanford University
September 2018 to Present

Communications and Strategy, mARkt (Mixed Reality Startup)
Stanford Graduate School of Business, Ignite Program
June 2018 to July 2018

Graduate Consultant for Pedagogy
Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning, Stanford University
September 2014 to June 2016

Curator, “Arboreal Architecture” Exhibition
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University
January 2015 to May 2015

Co-Curator, “Carleton Watkins: The Stanford Albums” Exhibition
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University
May 2014 to December 2014

Research Scholar, U.S. Fulbright Commission
University of Lausanne, Switzerland
September 2009 to June 2010

Traits & Languages

Organized

Patient

Communicative

Empathetic

Collaborative

English

French

Italian

German

Spanish

References available on request

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Brilliant show of playful, sonorous landscapes @fraenkelgallery by Richard T. Walker. My review of it and new work @sfmoma here: https://www.squarecylinder.com/2019/06/landscape-interrupted-rodney-mcmillian-richard-t-walker/
A sweet visit to the #magritte show at SFMOMA with Chase. She spotted so many of her new words: “moon,” “bird,” “tree,” “big green apple.” (My favorite was “Hypertrophy” 😉👨‍🎨🍏) At the end she demanded that she and @ephduke try on bowler hats. ceci n'est pas une #latergram
Recalling those divine reflections on Brychtová and Libensky’s cast glass “Spaces II” at the @brooklynmuseum last Friday #latergram
Not her first visit to @sfmoma but Serra’s Sequence sure made the lady oooh and aaah more than she ever has in a museum
An obvious reordering, but a delightful one.
A replica of panel 11 from Gustav Klimt's Beethoven Frieze (1901-1902) in the #KlimtxRodin exhibition @legionofhonor. Side by Side: "A Choir of Angels from Paradise" and "This Kiss for the Entire World." We all can feel the emotional intensity of Klimt's figures. But the way he beams that intensity to the world comes, to an always surprising degree in person, through design: the flatness of the flowered ground and the evocative apertures of the red and white circle-triangle motifs. Swaying gilded lines in the angels' gowns and above the couple's shoulders give the impression that feelings are literally steaming out of them. We can't help but effuse these golden vapors, the figures seem to confess, regardless of how well-defined our contours seem. The original president of the Vienna Secession movement, Klimt learned to follow his own creative compass and to ignore criticism. A quote from the philosopher and poet Friedrich Schiller painted above another signal work in the exhibition, Nudas Veritas (1899): "If you can't please everyone with your deeds and your art, please only a few. To please many is bad." More thoughts on Klimt and the Vienna Secession here: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-art-nouveau

Services

I love giving dynamic, engaging talks on American art, photography, and the history of landscape architecture design. I’ve recently lectured at Stanford, Bowdoin College, Texas Christian University, Emory University, SFMOMA, the de Young Museum, the Institute for Classical Architecture & Art, and many other educational venues. Please reach out if you’re interested in having me speak for your group or event!

I’m also available for private guided tours of Bay Area museums. If you’re excited about an upcoming exhibition or are visiting the area and would like an expert and affable guide through a show, be in touch!
 

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