Miriam Schapiro, ‘The Poet,’ 1983, Acrylic and fabric collage on canvas, Polk Museum of Art Permanent Collection 2000.7, © 2023 Estate of Miriam Schapiro / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
This Spring, Florida Southern College undergraduate students pursuing degrees in disciplines as wide-ranging as Chemistry, Molecular Biology, Business, Graphic Design, Studio Art, and Art History and Museum Studies enrolled in a brand-new course offering called “The Art of Curating.”
As part of their coursework, students had the opportunity to contribute collectively to an actual exhibition here at the Polk Museum of Art, their College museum (and academic home to the Department of Art History and Museum Studies). This exhibit, aptly titled New Eyes on the Permanent Collection, features highlights from the Museum’s collection of nearly 3,000 works and offers visitors a novel set of lenses and voices through which to experience (or re-experience) familiar and lesser-seen treasures from our collection.
Indeed, in this installation, we have asked these curators-in-training to give us new educational, art historical, and personal insight into a handful of objects, seen freshly through their individual 21st-century eyes, research, and writing. Once the students have completed their assignment, you’ll find not just one but three sets of interpretive labels per work. The concept: as opposed to a singular curatorial voice, let’s create exhibition text that engages and encourages understanding of art from several curatorial vantage points at once.
With this unique, student-driven exhibition, we look excitedly toward the future of museums and the diverse voices that will contribute to our understanding of art, culture, and museums’ vital roles in our world. These student curators offer us an amazing preview.