Volunteer and Intern Projects at MoFA
Gifted Curatorial Project students and MoFA interns and staff: Caitlyn Cooney (Art History) supervising an elementary student who is examining a painting by Julie Bowland. Education Curator Dr. Viki Thompson Wylder with an FSUS student taking notes on an African artwork from the Mooney Collection. Johnathan Steele (Art History) with FSUS students on a scavenger hunt during the Gabrielle Wu Lee exhibition.
For current exhibitions, the Museum’s volunteer corps and interns create interpretative materials for the public: Students Question Students is a set of critical thinking questions authored to challenge other university students. Every volunteer and intern contributed to the series of questions that Jasmine Van Weeldon (Volunteer Coordinator) and Annie Love (Assistant Coordinator) created for the MoFA website; printouts contain a QR code for smart-phone access. Interns under the direction of Education Curator Viki Thompson Wylder interact with gifted elementary students from 2nd to 5th grade who are curating an exhibition from MoFA’s permanent collection.
The bulk of their exhibition will be virtual – placed on their school website, but a handful of works will be loaned to secure offices at the school. Aspects of this project include an introduction to the permanent collection (first field trip), the ensuing selection of works from the permanent collection for research and inclusion in the exhibition (two field trips), and a fourth and final field trip during which Wayne Vonada, Museum Preparator, will demonstrate hanging work and setting up an exhibition. The field trips also involved “scavenger hunts” using the exhibitions on display over the course of the academic year. The questions in the scavenger hunts were meant to reinforce “curatorial skills” and knowledge of museum exhibitions. Each student who entered the permanent collection depot was accompanied by an adult, generally an intern or volunteer. The current MoFA interns will put together a small “catalogue” for the elementary-student curated exhibition.
Gifted Curatorial Project students and MoFA interns and staff: Caitlyn Cooney (Art History) supervising an elementary student who is examining a painting by Julie Bowland. Education Curator Dr. Viki Thompson Wylder with an FSUS student taking notes on an African artwork from the Mooney Collection. Johnathan Steele (Art History) with FSUS students on a scavenger hunt during the Gabrielle Wu Lee exhibition.
Upcoming Events:
February 1 – March 30 — Trevor Bell / Both Sides of the Atlantic
February 14 – March 30 — Making Now: Open for Exchange
April 11 – 30 — Spring Graduating Artists