HART B300 The Curator in the Museum. This course provides an introduction to theoretical and practical aspects of museums and to the links between practice and theory that are the defining characteristic of the museum curator’s work today. The challenges and opportunities confronting curators and their colleagues, peers, audiences, and constituents will be addressed through readings, discussions, guest presentations, writings, and individual and group projects.

HART B373 Contemporary Art in Exhibition: Museums and Beyond. How does the collection and display of artwork create meanings beyond the individual art object? In recent decades, enormous shifts have occurred in exhibition design as artwork projected from the walls of the museum, moved outdoors to the space of the street, and eventually went online. We will study an array of contemporary exhibition practices and sites in their social and historical contexts, including the temporary exhibition, “the white cube,” the “black box,” museum installations, international biennials, and websites. During the seminar, we will examine how issues such as patronage, avant-gardism, globalization, and identity politics have progressively brought museums and other exhibition spaces into question.

HART B374 Topics: Exhibition Seminar: World’s Fairs. Beginning in 1851, World’s Fairs were large public exhibitions intended to put the world on display for a visiting public. Exhibits displayed the technological innovations of western nations, attempting to normalize the implicit exploitation of colonized lands and people involved. This course will attend to the practice of displaying human beings, especially women, in this effort. Students will learn about this exhibition history and present it in an exhibition of their own design.Students will gain practical experience in the production of an exhibition: conceiving a curatorial approach, articulating themes, writing didactics, researching a checklist, designing gallery layout, producing print and web materials, developing programs, and marketing the exhibit. Prerequisite: At least one previous HART course at Bryn Mawr College.