This Fall, fourteen undergraduate students of the Art History Museum Object class created the exhibition The Shape of Care in the WJB Gallery. The exhibition encourages visitors to reflect upon practices of care by engaging with visual art that explores how we care for ourselves, our families, and our communities. How do acts of care shape our lives and the world around us? What are the ways we both give and receive care? The challenging past year and a half have prompted us to respond to these questions and to reevaluate what care means to us and the many ways we can apply it within our daily lives. The exhibition features artworks from FSU’s Museum of Fine Arts (MoFA) permanent collection and local artists: Shelby Evans, Leah Gossett, Makenzie Heinemann, Camille Modesto, Athena Nugent, Maryam Takalou, and April Webb.
The class, taught by Professors Grace Aneiza Ali and Kristin Dowell, involves students learning about art museum philosophies, practices, policies, and executing what they have learned through curating and designing the exhibition. Students had the opportunity to delve further into curatorial research, installation and design processes, educational engagement activities and marketing for the exhibition. This exhibition has come together through the students’ hard work, the commitment of the professors, College of Fine Arts faculty and staff, the generosity of university and local collections, and the support of the community.
Photographs courtesy of Eliza Schneider-Green & the Museum Object marketing team.