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Posted 05/03/02
Allison Evans fidgeted on a stool in the foyer of the Hood Museum of Art before giving a lecture in early March. A student photographer snapped pictures. Allison was nervous and didn't expect so many people — about a dozen — to attend what was the culmination of several weeks of work choosing artwork, putting together an installation, and writing a curatorial essay, now in a glossy brochure in a rack beside her installation.
Once the people, including curators, professors, and art enthusiasts, took their seats, Evans left behind any hint of nervousness and spoke confidently on the two pieces: Jean Dubuffet's 1958 painting, Topography with a Nest of Stones, and Cornelia Parker's 2001 photograph, Dust Breeding (on Judd).
The audience was struck by the differences between the two works. The Dubuffet, an abstract landscape of oil and collage, was more than three times the size of the Parker, a photograph of magnified, dust-covered insects. Created in different artistic eras with different intents, the only element immediately uniting the two for the audience were the autumnal color schemes.
"Once I saw the Cornelia Parker I knew they belonged together, but at first I didn't know why," Evans said. "The two artists adhere to the idea that art waits in unexpected places." Discussing their differences and similarities, Evans explained why she reasoned the two works complemented each other and belonged next to each other in one of the most visible spaces in the museum, the foyer, which is now the allotted area for A Space for Dialogue: Fresh Perspectives on the Permanent Collection from Dartmouth's Students.
A new element introduced this year into the Hood Museum of Art Senior Internship Program, A Space for Dialogue, made possible by a gift from the Class of 1948, offers senior interns the chance to curate exhibits under the guidance of the museum staff. The five interns, one for each area of public relations, education, and classical coins and two for curatorial work, have the entire permanent collection of the museum — 60,000 works — to peruse in order to find two or three that interest them and would fit the space at the entrance of the museum.
"It's really up to whatever direction the student would like to take," said Sharon Reed, Public Relations Coordinator. "Students work with the appropriate curator and the registrar to pull everything together. The project involves research, writing label copy and an essay, helping to install the works, and presenting a public gallery talk."
Implemented by Derrick Cartwright, Director of the Hood Museum, the program was designed to "reach out to students and to get them more involved in the museum on new levels," Reed said.
When Maggie Lind '02, Curatorial Intern, started work for her installation, she began by searching the permanent collection with the help of her supervisor, Bart Thurber, Curator of European Art. After researching the artist, the historical content and context of the works, she brainstormed for the essay, narrowing its scope and eventually polishing it with her curatorial supervisor and the museum's editor.
Lind hung two 19th century paintings for six weeks in the fall: Johann Nepomuk Ender's Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness and Louis Hector LeRoux's Woman Holding a Child up to Touch a Statue of Aesclepius. Both paintings have two figures, one a mother, one a child, but in the LeRoux, the figures are smaller and the child reaches to a statue. Ender's figures are larger and the child lies pale and lifeless in his mother's arms. Both paintings have landscapes in the background, but Ender's color scheme, with its warm red, orange and brown tones, contrasts with LeRoux's muted green and greys, punctuated with small, bright spots of red and blue.
"Seeing the completed installation and my printed brochure hanging in an actual museum really gave me a sense of accomplishment," Lind said. "And it really made me feel welcome by the Hood Museum and its staff as not just an inexperienced intern, but as someone whose ideas they respected. This has proved to be true throughout my internship experience at the Hood."
For another Space for Dailogue installation, Kim Sodertsrom '02, Class of 1954 Public Relations Intern, integrated her interests in art and anthropology by installing two works of the Oruru mineworkers from Bolivia and three of the Kuna Indians from Panama. Sodertsrom was struck by the poignancy in the contrast between the works' beauty and the painful historical background they represented.
Soderstrom wrote in her gallery essay: "The objects featured in this exhibition are testaments to the endurance of culture in spite of strain. The beauty and energy of each mask and cloth intensify in contrast to the social struggles endured by their creators. In this context, each object becomes a symbol of cultural triumph over hardship, scarcity, hegemony, and even revolution."
The project became personal for Soderstrom when a rare accident in the exhibition preparation area left a glass eye of one of the Bolivian masks broken. Careful to conserve the object's integrity, Hood Museum professionals in object handling guided Soderstrom, a double major in Studio Art and Anthropology, in creating a temporary artistic copy of the original eye so that her installation could be installed on schedule.
"It was during this aspect of the project, more than any other, that the two academic experiences of Studio Art and Anthropology intersected for me," said Soderstrom. "Sitting in my studio trying so hard to mimic the colors and line-work of the original Bolivian artist, I literally felt as if I was engaged in a dialogue with him and his culture. In the hours that I worked on the eye, I felt as if this folk artist was challenging me, my preconceptions of his work, my skills, determination, and rationalization of art. Ultimately, this project became a catalyst for very meaningful introspection into my own objectives for the present and the future."
Beyond A Space for Dailogue, the duties of senior interns vary according to specialty. Kathy Hart, Barbara C. and Harvey P. Hood 1918 Curator of Academic Programming, and Lesley Wellman, Curator of Education, choose applicants in the fall for the program based on interests, even making new positions when an applicant's interests line up with a particular program at the museum at that time. Every year, senior interns work on ongoing projects, but they also develop their own projects according to their specialties.
"Each intern has different interests, different backgrounds, different strengths that they bring to their experience," Wellman said. "They suggest and develop ideas for new initiatives, so the projects that each intern works on vary from year to year."
Carrie Swan '02, Classical Coin Intern, spends most of her time in the museum, comparing its collection with the British Museum's coin catalogs and other sources in order to compile data for the museum's collection. She also works on actual coins with a magnifying glass, decoding their images, legends and contexts.
Education Intern Amanda Potter '02 has combined her interests in art and working with children by organizing several programs, including one for a group of Upper Valley schoolchildren. In this program, photographs the children captured of their families and communities were hung with their own captions for one of the Hood Museum's Family Days. This term, Potter plans to coordinate activities with local high school students for the High Society: Psychedelic Rock Posters of Haight-Ashbury exhibition.
Like most of the senior interns, who have joined the program in order to gain experience with the inner workings of a museum and to further their knowledge in a career field, Potter hopes to pursue a career in museum education after graduation. She cites her experience at the museum as elemental in developing this goal.
"Unlike some other internship programs where interns just run errands or do 'busy work,' the museum interns are actively engaged with the daily workings of the museum," Potter said. "We have a real voice and are given many opportunities to formulate our own projects and develop skills that will be invaluable in our future careers."
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