Toward a pedagogy for faculty and student co-responsibility in curating college museum exhibitions. (April 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rodgers, Susan
• Is Part Of: Arts and humanities in higher education. Volume 14:Number 2(2015)
• Page Start: 150
• Page End: 165
• Publication Date: 2015-04
• Subjects: Asian textiles -- ikat -- Indonesian arts -- students and museum exhibitions -- undergraduate research; Arts -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Periodicals; Humanities -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Periodicals; 700.711
• DOI: 10.1177/1474022214554111
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1474-0222

Abstract

When undergraduates work with college faculty on complex research projects, the students are often asked to take on the role of "secondary-level" gatherers of data. This can be legitimate: the students have no graduate training and the faculty mentor is more experienced in research design and analysis. This study, however, offers an alternative model for student/faculty joint research: a model for pedagogy on the arts in anthropology that fosters stronger degrees of student agency and "ownership" of a museum project. At issue was a college art gallery exhibition called "Transnational Ikat: An Asian Textile on the Move" co-curated by an anthropologist (the author) and undergraduates. Some institutions invite undergraduates to curate exhibitions via museum studies seminars. However, the model discussed here had more scope: the team did ethnographic fieldwork in Bali, then cowrote the exhibition website, and then led gallery tours. Co-ownership of the entire undertaking was fostered in all stages.