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Few undergraduate students ever have the opportunity to curate a professional museum exhibition. Every three years at 91����, they do. 

Through the Exhibition Seminar, students move beyond studying exhibitions to creating one. From selecting artworks to writing catalog essays and installing the exhibition, they experience the work of museum professionals firsthand.

For more than four decades, 91����'s Exhibition Seminar has transformed the museum into a classroom unlike any other. Since its founding in the 1980s by Professors Emerita Susan Strauber and Timothy Chasson, the seminar has challenged students to do far more than study art history—they become curators, researchers, writers, designers, and collaborators responsible for creating a professional exhibition from concept to opening day.

The result is an experience that remains exceptionally rare among undergraduate institutions.

"The Exhibition Seminar is a chance to bring art history to life," says Professor Jenny Anger. 

A museum becomes the classroom

Unlike a traditional seminar centered on discussion and papers, the Exhibition Seminar asks students to build a public exhibition from the ground up.

Over the course of a semester, students research artworks, determine the exhibition's central theme, collaborate with museum professionals, write catalog essays, design gallery layouts, and ultimately install an exhibition that opens to the public. Their scholarly writing is then published in a professionally designed exhibition catalog—an accomplishment many students carry with them into graduate school and their careers.

"What makes the seminar special is that it is a full process, from choosing art objects to conceiving of an exhibition to organizing and arranging it," says Professor of Art History Michael Mackenzie. "The students also have to research the art and produce original scholarship about it. That's a lot to accomplish in a single semester—it's an incredibly ambitious project."

"But the students get the experience of doing the work, they meet with real world professionals, and at the end they get to see a great-looking show on the walls of a real museum, open to the public. And their scholarship is published in the catalog. It's going to stand out on any CV."

Associate Professor and Department Chair Eiren Shea says the experience offers students a level of responsibility rarely entrusted to undergraduates.

"The experience of designing and curating a show along with publishing a catalog is not one students will find at most institutions," Shea says. "Undergraduates are usually sidelined in museum curation, or given very specific intern-like tasks—researching for exhibition labels, or putting together a spreadsheet of objects, for example. Here, the students do it all, with help from the professor and museum staff. It's an unparalleled experience that shows students how an exhibition is put on, albeit at an accelerated pace."

Learning through collaboration

The seminar extends well beyond the art history classroom. Students work alongside the 91���� Museum of Art staff throughout every stage of the process, learning firsthand how exhibitions come together through collaboration.

"Our exhibition seminar worked closely with GCMoA staff to make decisions about the overarching narrative of the exhibition," Shea says. "This culminated in the students pitching the exhibition (title, narrative, design, etc.) to the GCMoA staff and incorporating feedback into the overall exhibition plan."

That collaboration also teaches students that museums are built through many different areas of expertise.

"Putting together an exhibition is not a situation where curators trained in art history just decide what the narrative, organization, and show labels will look like, but one in which there is constant dialogue between different parts of the museum," Shea says.

For Anger, one of the most rewarding moments comes when students discover that creating an exhibition requires both intellectual rigor and teamwork.

"I've taught the seminar three times before," she says. "Each time, after weeks of study about the topic and how museums work, there is always a heated discussion about what the guiding theme of the show should be. The intensity of the discussion shows the commitment and investment of the students." 

Creating Rhizomatic Intimacies

This spring's exhibition, Rhizomatic Intimacies, expanded the seminar in a new direction by centering on works loaned to the College rather than relying solely on the museum's permanent collection.

For Mackenzie, that shift gave students a deeper understanding of how collections evolve and how exhibitions emerge through relationships.

"There were two important ways in which the students' experience was shaped by the fact that they were working with the collection of a couple, rather than with the museum's collection," Mackenzie says. "The students learned a lot about how individual collectors make decisions about what to acquire... Second, the students had a chance to develop their own relationships, with each other, and with the collectors."

"The students benefited from Keith Jantzen ’80 and Scott Beth's generosity—not just through the artworks they lent or donated, but by opening their home and sharing how they live with the art they collect. They became models for our students of what it means to be collectors, mentors, and alumni."

One defining moment came when the students challenged the conventional way photographs are categorized.

"They achieved a breakthrough—and cohered as a working group—when they questioned the usual categories into which photographs are organized and exhibited," Mackenzie says. "'What is a landscape?' they asked. 'What is a still life or a portrait? Why these boundaries?'"

The students ultimately proposed organizing the exhibition around the concept of "rhizomatic intimacy."

"When I walked into the room at the usual time," Mackenzie recalls, "they said, 'No. This is what we're doing. It's called "rhizomatic intimacy." I can't remember a moment when I've been prouder of a class of students." 

An experience that lasts beyond graduation

While some students discover an interest in museum careers through the seminar, faculty say the experience prepares them for much more.

"Students must bring a large project to completion, and they must do so collaboratively," Anger says. "These are great life skills."

For Mackenzie, the seminar also changes the way students engage with art long after the course ends. "I hope that they have a more familiar and comfortable relationship with actual art objects," he says. "Most of the students had never before thought about photographs as artworks like paintings or sculptures. I hope that stays with them."

The course has also come full circle for Associate Professor of Art History Fredo Rivera ‘06, who first experienced the Exhibition Seminar as a 91���� student before returning to teach it as a faculty member—an example of the lasting impact the program can have on students and their careers. 

Looking toward the future

The Exhibition Seminar continues to evolve while remaining true to its original mission.

The planned 2028–29 seminar will focus on the work of artist Hannah Wilke through the collections of Wilke’s stepdaughters, Kate Goddard ’91 and Nell Goddard Wilson, and the estate of their father, Donald Goddard, Wilke's second husband, offering students another opportunity to build a professional exhibition around works on loan.

"I'm excited to see what focus students choose," Anger says. "It's always a little surprising and innovative."

She also sees continued opportunities to alternate between exhibitions drawn from the museum's permanent collection and those featuring borrowed works.

"Going forward, I think we should do shows from our own collection, bringing fresh eyes to it, and loan shows, to expand our horizons."

More than 40 years after its founding, the Exhibition Seminar continues to offer 91���� students something few undergraduates experience: the chance to move beyond studying exhibitions and instead create them.