Thursday, January 26, 2012
Thursday, December 22, 2011
University Art Museums and Galleries: A Student Perspective, Part II
Accessing Art on Campus
An integral part of any education is hands-on experience, particularly at the university level, where students are preparing themselves for future careers. This hands-on experience can translate differently from field to field, however, any school would seem horribly negligent to offer a major in chemistry without including access to a laboratory, or a medical degree without experience in an actual hospital. For a student majoring in the arts, hands-on experience means access and exposure to art objects. However, often this fundamental access is viewed as merely secondary to other university concerns. In order to correct this, universities must realize what an asset art collections are to their campuses. Where a chemistry lab is only truly essential to a science major, an art museum or gallery may play host to the education of all categories of students, faculty, and the community at large. Exposure to art can inspire persons from all walks of life, and easy access to these objects should be a great concern of the universities.
In educating Art majors, obviously art would play an essential part. Merely viewing works in the pages of a textbook, however, is not enough. To understand the impasto of a Rembrandt, the sheer size of a Gericault, the tactile qualities of an African mask, students must be able to view these items in person. No photograph or slide can due proper justice to the real physicality of a work of art. Student access to art is a necessary practicum, especially in the study of art. The position of an art collection, and the gallery or museum space that holds it must be viewed as an essential part of the university campus. This connection between art object and art education must be respected and promoted. A student researching a work of art has as much right to access as a student researching science or medicine. Any neglect on the part of a university to create such an atmosphere is to seriously impair the abilities of its student, and to limit their educational tools. Art objects are a vital necessity on any liberal arts campus, and access to these objects should be considered in all university development.
Access to works of art should extend beyond art majors and faculty, public access should be guaranteed as well. Football stadiums and basketball courts open the campus up to the surrounding community, but a university art museum or gallery could offer another means of connection. Exposure to special exhibitions, permanent collections, artist talks, and objects on loan opens a gateway to the public, inviting them into the academic side of the campus, and creating a connection to the outside world. Just as the public and the campus may come together to cheer on the university team, so to can they come together to discuss an art exhibition. If a university utilizes these possibilities, the opportunity to establish an open and multi-faceted dialogue between all sides of the campus and the public at large could exist.
It is important to recognize artworks as a vital part of any campus, whether it is a work by a master painter, or a student-created sculpture on the quad. Access should be guaranteed to these objects, and pains should be taken to integrate collections into a more active role in campus life.
by Taylor Horak
B.A. Student, Art History
Virginia Commonwealth University
Department of Art History, School of the Arts
An integral part of any education is hands-on experience, particularly at the university level, where students are preparing themselves for future careers. This hands-on experience can translate differently from field to field, however, any school would seem horribly negligent to offer a major in chemistry without including access to a laboratory, or a medical degree without experience in an actual hospital. For a student majoring in the arts, hands-on experience means access and exposure to art objects. However, often this fundamental access is viewed as merely secondary to other university concerns. In order to correct this, universities must realize what an asset art collections are to their campuses. Where a chemistry lab is only truly essential to a science major, an art museum or gallery may play host to the education of all categories of students, faculty, and the community at large. Exposure to art can inspire persons from all walks of life, and easy access to these objects should be a great concern of the universities.
In educating Art majors, obviously art would play an essential part. Merely viewing works in the pages of a textbook, however, is not enough. To understand the impasto of a Rembrandt, the sheer size of a Gericault, the tactile qualities of an African mask, students must be able to view these items in person. No photograph or slide can due proper justice to the real physicality of a work of art. Student access to art is a necessary practicum, especially in the study of art. The position of an art collection, and the gallery or museum space that holds it must be viewed as an essential part of the university campus. This connection between art object and art education must be respected and promoted. A student researching a work of art has as much right to access as a student researching science or medicine. Any neglect on the part of a university to create such an atmosphere is to seriously impair the abilities of its student, and to limit their educational tools. Art objects are a vital necessity on any liberal arts campus, and access to these objects should be considered in all university development.
Access to works of art should extend beyond art majors and faculty, public access should be guaranteed as well. Football stadiums and basketball courts open the campus up to the surrounding community, but a university art museum or gallery could offer another means of connection. Exposure to special exhibitions, permanent collections, artist talks, and objects on loan opens a gateway to the public, inviting them into the academic side of the campus, and creating a connection to the outside world. Just as the public and the campus may come together to cheer on the university team, so to can they come together to discuss an art exhibition. If a university utilizes these possibilities, the opportunity to establish an open and multi-faceted dialogue between all sides of the campus and the public at large could exist.
It is important to recognize artworks as a vital part of any campus, whether it is a work by a master painter, or a student-created sculpture on the quad. Access should be guaranteed to these objects, and pains should be taken to integrate collections into a more active role in campus life.
by Taylor Horak
B.A. Student, Art History
Virginia Commonwealth University
Department of Art History, School of the Arts
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Winter VAM Voice Sneak-Peek
Many thanks to legislator David L. Bulova for answering the following questions for us. Mr. Bulova represents Fairfax City and parts of Fairfax County in the Virginia House of Delegates, 37th District. Find out more at www.davidbulova.com.
What do you know about the museums in your district? Would hearing from your museum constituents be of interest/helpful to you?
I have several wonderful museums and historic properties located in my district, including the Blenheim House in the City of Fairfax (c. 1858-60), the Fairfax County Courthouse (c. 1799), and Mount Gilead in historic Centreville (c. 1785). All three are integral parts of the character of the surrounding communities. Hearing from my museum constituents and the historic preservation community is very helpful to me. In fact, it is how I became aware of the need for HB1963, which passed in 2011 and allows local governments to create resident curator programs to manage historic properties.
From your perspective as a legislator, what is the most helpful information a museum constituent can provide for you?
Museums are an important part of protecting our cultural heritage and it is important that we make the investments necessary to preserve historic objects and properties for future generations. Especially in tight budget times it is critical to hear from constituents about the importance of museums, and their contribution to our economy, since they are competing with many other services and programs throughout Virginia. It is also helpful to hear about creative ideas for preservation and programming that do not involve funding, or that capitalize on public-private partnerships. The resident curator program was a great example of out-of-the-box thinking.
What would be your advice to a person who has never been involved in the advocacy process, but is interested in starting?
Make an appointment to sit down with your legislator several months before session, which starts on the second Wednesday of January. Most legislators love to discuss the legislative process and can help a constituent develop an advocacy plan. Before making an appointment, think through what you are interested in accomplishing. Do you have a specific idea? Do you want to create greater awareness? Remember that in Virginia, legislators are part time and only meet a couple of months out of the year. If you have a specific idea, think through whether it will cost money and who will likely support or oppose the idea. Touch base with other stakeholders to see what they think as well. Be patient and understand that your legislator will help out if at all possible, but that legislators also need to be strategic about what they introduce, and when. Timing is everything, especially when trying to get an idea through the committee system. Finally, remember that advocacy is about relationship building. Stay in touch with your legislator and invite him or her to special events and functions in the museum community. Your legislator won’t be able to make all of these events, but will appreciate being given the opportunity to participate.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
University Art Museums and Galleries - a Student Perspective
University and college art museums and galleries already provide invaluable resources to students, and now we need them now more than ever. All students are more than aware of the job market that awaits them after graduation. Many are looking to fill their CVs and resumes with experience related to their fields, and university museums are in a unique position to prepare students academically and professionally.
Most students are looking for internships. While formal internship programs are time-consuming to organize, having some kind of structure really helps utilize the work interns do. For example, long-term projects allow students to invest in the work they do––plus, interns that come to work (because that’s really how we look at it) and can pick up where they left off spend less time hovering around the office doors of staff, waiting to be assigned a task. The University of Virginia Art Museum and the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William & Mary list formal internship programs on their web pages. The Muscarelle even requires students to have already volunteered before applying for internships. On the job training is really the only way to acquire the skills needed to work in a museum, so students are looking for opportunities to gain the necessary experience in proximity to where they live and study.
An internship may even help a student decide if he or she really wants to work in a museum. If students are considering graduate school or an academic career, they are most likely looking for opportunities to conduct research. Sure, students can contact university museum directors and curators directly about gaining special access to the collection, but does the wider university community know that a collection is available for research? This past spring, one exhibit at Randolph College’s Maier Museum of Art, Nature Perfected: The Art of Botanical Illustration, was curated by a pre-med student. Reaching across departments and disciplines is one unique opportunity that museums have when operating under a university umbrella. Partnering with professors to create courses that relate a particular field of study to the museum would also offer more university-wide exposure. And regardless of academic background, students are looking for opportunities to learn new skills.
So university museums, keep offering and expanding programs, internships and research opportunities for your students!
And, students, don’t pass up those internships and other opportunities that your university museums offer—especially while you’re still on a meal plan!
by
Sharayah Cochran
M.A. Student, Museum Studies
Virginia Commonwealth University
Department of Art History, School of the Arts
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
The End of PowerPoint
At this year's American Association for State and Local History Conference, I attended a session entitled, "The End of PowerPoint." Presenters Lindsay Baker and Linda Norris delivered—and modeled--several good ideas for conference session presentations and for presentations in general. (Linda blogged about it in her popular Uncataloged Museum blog, too.)
Two ideas stood out for me. The first was a demonstration (using "good" and "bad" PowerPoints) of the Pecha-Kucha approach. Basically, it's twenty slides, twenty seconds per slide. The approach is a powerful means to focus what you are saying, using the slide deck as a powerful visual aid, not as a visual crutch. Imagine that. You have 400 seconds-- six minutes and forty seconds--to make your point. Do the standard conference panel math: panel lasts ninety minutes with three presenters. Each presenter uses the pecha-kucha approach and you end up with just over twenty minutes of presentation and nearly seventy minutes to reflect, react, comment, and question. That's a proportion more in line with promoting dialog than the standard conference math: three presenters, twenty to twenty-five minutes each, with only fifteen (often) to thirty (rarely) minutes left for questions and discussion.
The second approach was to present via an interview. At first, I didn't think this made much sense but, as Lindsay interviewed Linda about a project she worked on, I realized the power of it. The agreement beforehand was that there was nothing off limits and they had not scripted or outlined the interview. As Linda described the project (which you can read about here), guided by Lindsay's questions, interest in the attendees led us, without prompting, to begin asking questions about the project. For ten minutes or so, we were not talking about presentations, we were talking about the project. The attendee questions stemmed from the answers Linda gave to Lindsay's questions and provided more detail or further information on that related to the participants’ interests. I think the approach has merit for discussing a project or related projects, and avoids the "show and tell" tendency of panel presentations.
Lindsay and Linda presented other ideas, including a small group activity where we had to come up with alternative proposals for programs based on the titles of actual sessions at the conference. It was a fun, creative way to talk about and think about applying what we had learned, while modeling yet another effective technique for more involvement.
The session inspired me to be think more creatively about how to promote a greater level of engagement in my own presentations at work--or in panels--to instruct, to inspire, and to lead. Why not head over to the "tips for presenters" page on the VAM website and see what is there that will inspire you or suggest resources that work for you. Also check out Linda Norris’ blog, The Uncataloged Museum. She may be putting the slide deck up from the “End of PowerPoint presentation.”
Happy Presenting!
GARY SANDLING | VICE-PRESIDENT | VISITOR PROGRAMS & SERVICES
MONTICELLO | 434.984.9833
www.monticello.org
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