Finding You Curatorial Voice (view)

Summary

College archival collections, artifacts, and art work, can often be found on display in dedicated exhibition spaces on campus. Curator's for the exhibits are often recruited from library staff and College faculty. Being the central authorities of scholarship on campus, the decision to allow established academics to curate moments of a college's history seems logical. Yet if we consider the largest audience for these exhibitions, the students, we find a disconnect between the academic presentation of exhibitions and the meaningful engagement of students with the materials these displays present. Students might acknowledge the presence of a text panel and a few artifacts, but how many of the students feel represented by the stories presented? How many of the students share a sense of ownership with the work that is being displayed? These challenges can be resolved using a learner centered approach. Through a guided lesson, students learn the basic principles of exhibition curation. Then, students employed their new skillset to develop an exhibition to be displayed.