Student News
Back row: Kelly Lao (MST), Ta-Teh Ku, art education professor, Keith Holz, art history professor, Donny Gettinger (Art)
Middle: Megan Henkel (Art), Sue Quail (MST), Stacia McKeever (Art)
Front row: Megan Crowley (MST), Lauren Ring (Art), Anya Bishop (MST), Catherine Litwinow (MST), Ann Rowson Love, director of museum studies.
On March sixth and seventh, museum studies students took advantage of beautiful weather and headed to St. Louis for our second regional museum field trip. Dr. Keith Holz, professor of art history in the art department, planned the trip to introduce museum studies and art education students to art museum professionals in his Saint Louis community. Ta-Teh Ku, art education professor, and Ann Rowson Love, director of museum studies, accompanied students from Macomb and Quad Cities campuses. From the moment we arrived, we proceeded through a whirlwind of museums and discussions with staff members.
At the Contemporary Art Museum, we met with curator of education Kathryn Adamchick to learn about the ways the museum engages with community audiences including high school students, medical students and older adults. Next door at the Pulitzer Foundation, curator Francesco Consagra gave us a private tour of the new exhibition Ideal (Dis-)Placements: Old Masters at the Pulitzer drawn from collections at Harvard and the Saint Louis Art Museum. Director of the Sheldon Galleries, Olivia Lahs-Gonzales, introduced us to the art galleries and the world-renowned Sheldon Concert Hall. Friday evening, we attended a lecture at the Contemporary given by Robert Storr, dean of the School of Art at Yale.
The next morning we proceeded to the Saint Louis Art Museum, where we viewed the plans for the new expansion building proposed by architect David Chipperfield, who also designed the Figge Art Museum in Davenport. We explored the permanent collections and the special exhibition, Power and Glory: Court Arts of China's Ming Dynasty. Architecture was a theme throughout all the museums and was the central focus of our visit to the Kemper Art Museum at Washington University where we viewed a retrospective of Eero Saaringen, the architect who designed the Saint Louis Gateway Arch, among many other well-known buildings including the John Deere corporate headquarters in Moline. We also met with museum director, Sabine Eckmann, who introduced us to the outdoor sculpture collection and themes in the permanent collection galleries.
Megan Crowley, first year student, commented on the History of Jazz gallery at the Sheldon Concert Hall: "It was an amazing exhibition, displaying examples of instruments from six different continents. I had a great time and appreciate this opportunity."
Ann Rowson Love , "I was surprised by how much we experienced during a day and a half. I thought the Pulitzer Foundation exhibition really challenged our ideas of exhibiting classical works of art in a contemporary space."
We would like to thank all institutions and their staff members who took the time to meet and speak with us. We appreciated Dr. Keith Holz, efforts to arrange this trip. Additionally, we thank our art department chair, Charles Wright, and our Dean, Paul Kreider for their help in supporting this great experience. What a wonderful and valuable learning experience!
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