Student Curated Exhibitions
Museum studies courses will explore theoretical issues critical to the rise and role of the museum and its relation to history and culture. The AHM program will also provide courses that help prepare students for internships and entry-level positions in museums, galleries, or other arts organizations.
Additionally, the program will also prepare students for continued academic work at the Masters and Ph.D. levels. Our partnership with the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University, centrally located on campus, is an integral part of the museum studies component, providing opportunities for museum internships and exhibition-based courses.
The featured mural "Puzzellation" was created by Niagara University students in Dr. Joanne Basta's Mathematics 351 course along with local artist Kristin Brandt from Young Audiences WNY.
The design features a tessellation, an arrangement of shapes created through translations and fitted together in a repeated pattern without gaps or overlapping. The students' work exemplifies an area of study known as transformational geometry.
This mural celebrates the creativity inherent in mathematics and aims to broaden viewers' perspectives of what constitutes mathematics. Other student designed art works will be on display, as well as information about the artistic elements found in the mathematics
AHM357A: Exhibiting Cultures is a hands on course taught by the Curator of Folk Arts at the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University.
Serving as an interdisciplinary introduction to museum exhibitions, this course examines the theoretical, ethical, and methodological issues underpinning the practice, especially those concerning the representation of people, their lives and creations.
Through hands-on coursework, students learn everything that goes into the development of a folk arts exhibition or program: from learning to conduct interviews, to using fieldwork to draft exhibit text, to framing artworks and installing exhibits.
The semester long course culminates in an original, class-generated and curated exhibition or program rooted in fieldwork conducted by the professor and students in the course.
Students in Fall 2019’s Introduction to Museum Studies class curated an exhibition titled HERstory of Art, organized in celebration of the upcoming 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment.
The works chosen represent a wide range of artistic styles and media by regional, national and international artists (including Linda Benglis, Mary Cassatt, Sonia Delaunay, Barbara Kruger, Marisol Escobar, Susan Rothenberg, and Cindy Sherman).
These selections complement additional works by women artists on view in several other galleries in the Castellani Art Museum, including Joan Mitchell, Grace Hartigan, Helen Frankenthaler, Alison Saar, and Niki de Saint Phalle, among others.