Alyson B. Stanfield wrote:

"I am curious about other university art museums who do regular
exhibitions of works by students on campus.  I am particularly interested
in how the students are prepared for the submitting their work to a
museum exhibition.  In other words, what is the educational value of their
experience?"


The Williams College Museum of Art and the Art Department put on an
annual spring show by senior art majors.  As an art major exhibiting
work in the show and a student  employee of the museum, I got an
interesting perspective of the process from both sides -- exhibitor and
exhibitee.

For me the "educational value" was mostly in what it feels like to work up
to a show, and then to have it displayed for a general audience.  Art
students are used to showing work to fellow students and professors,
but the opportunities to show to a larger and less specialized audience
(at least in Williamstown, Massachusetts) are more rare.  In my year,
most majors took a senior tutorial (one-on-one work with a professor) to
develop a specific project for exhibition in the senior show.  In this
respect, the show was a "real-life" goal to work towards. And it's
always an ego boost to see your work displayed in a "real museum."

At the same time, the process was non-competitive - all majors were
automatically in the show - so what it didn't teach was the labor involved
in pounding the pavement to get your art shown, along with the kajillion
other former art students who are doing the same thing.  That's perhaps
the most important lesson - but I guess there's always plenty of time for
that outside the ivory tower.   I view it like the graduation ceremony itsef
- the capstone to a four-year course of study, equal parts education and
celebration.

Hope this helps.

Nicole M. Bouvier
Scheduling and Exhibitor Relations
Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES)
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