THE SENSES COALESCE AT BEARD AND WEIL

Thanks to its cross-cultural and historically deep in-house permanent collection of approximately 6,000 objects in a wide variety of media, as well as a substantial archives department and a superb on-site display area in the form of its Beard and Weil Galleries, Wheaton College is a perfect setting for the training of future art curators.

Wheaton’s Museum Studies department — directed by professor Leah Niederstadt in collaboration with an extensive team of colleagues that includes professor Evelyn Straudinger, Chair in Humanities and Social Sciences and co-director of the Wheaton Institute for the Interdisciplinary Humanities — bridges art and the humanities.

Straudinger explained that Wheaton’s curriculum is nationally known for its connected courses. Its Exhibition Design, Art History 335 class links the intellectual and academic/research focused, object-based curatorial area with the technical and audience (education) approach of exhibition structure (communication).

The course is broader in focus because students must consider all elements of the exhibition process, including duties typically handled by the registrar, collections manager, graphic designer or preparatory department, Niederstadt said.

J. Fatima Martins