Have you ever been curious about the art behind the different aspects of art museums such as curatorial, conservation, or education? Well, let your wonderment run wild because THIS Tuesday, University Gallery welcomes YOU to come and join the panel discussion!
For the past three years the University Gallery has collaborated with the Department of Art, Art History and Architecture to offer a spring workshop to undergraduate and graduate students interested in pursuing a museum career. It provides an important overview of career options, training, and challenges of museum and gallery work.
We have extended invitations to Susan Vogel, Matthew Higgs, and Hamza Walker.
Join in on the action! If you would like more info, please check out our website: click here.
In Whose Voice
Art & Art History Careers: Round Table #4
Tuesday, March 31 from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm
The Rand Theater in the Fine Arts Center
I thought it was a great panel. Both Matthew Higgs and Hamza Walker clearly love what they do–and especially working with living artists–but it was Susan Vogel’s passion for African art and culture that really struck me at the Round Table. It’s inspiring to know that without an art historical background, she visited Africa’s Ivory Coast and has continued to work with African artworks (or non-artworks) ever since. Her passion for what she does reminds myself why I’m doing all that I am, which is not only refreshing, but I think necessary, at an academic-based discussion.
The only drawback to the event is that we didn’t have more time.
Thanks!
Walker, Hamsa and Vogel all discussed the museum/gallery as a unique space with the power to construct art as art, but it seemed Susan brought this point to the fore in her slideshow. For example, the image of the altars constructed by actual priests raised the question of when is a museum no longer a museum? That people came into the space to worship at the altars makes it no longer a gallery to my mind but, literally, a place of worship. (Actually, the same thing happened at the Nashville Parthenon, where visitors left “offerings” of pennies and food beside the gilded statue.) This then conflicts with her assertion that it is the context and the artistic intention that makes the object an art-object.
They certainly made it clear that current trends in contemporary art are hard to put into an art historical box where everything is neatly defined and clear cut. Here we have a place that tries to capture the current moment a snap shot so to speak. It cannot provide a general representation of the ‘culture of the first decade of the 21 st century’. But taken all such snap shots together they will from a societal and cultural point of view that can only come to focus with distance and historical hindsight. Such is the exciting and bewildering aspect of contemporary art.
Vogel was very articulate on her approach and desire to authentically represent African art and artefacts. But it also became clear that it is intrinsically problematic to do so. Vogel: showing a tiger in a museum is always ‘A Tiger in a Museum’. That just about sums it up.