Students to Create Exhibition in New Course with Prof. Elizabeth Ferrell
Elizabeth Ferrell, Assistant Professor of Art History, is currently developing a new course that will give students experience curating an exhibition from start to finish. The new exhibition seminar will be offered in spring 2017 as part of the Minor in Arts Entrepreneurship and Curatorial Studies. The seminar will create an exhibition of works from the Arcadia University Art Collection that will open in the Great Room Lobby Gallery at the end of spring 2017.
Students will lead every step of the exhibition’s production: They will select the works, choose a title, research and write wall text, decide how to arrange the works, install the exhibition, produce promotional materials, organize programming, and plan the opening. The course gives students the opportunity to apply knowledge and skills—about curatorial theory, exhibition installation, and art administration—that they have learned elsewhere in the Minor. In this way, the course strengthens the Minor’s focus on practical experience in the arts.
Ferrell, who specializes in modern and contemporary art, came up with the idea for the course after observing similar offerings at other institutions. She believes that exposing students to the full range of activities needed to produce an exhibition will help them determine the role they want to play in the art world after graduation, and make students more marketable to future employees.
Courtney Vincent (Art History ’19) is currently working with Prof. Ferrell as part of her apprenticeship in the Arts Entrepreneurship and Curatorial Studies Minor to select a theme for the exhibition. Look out for more announcements about the show next spring!
