The concentration in Art History is a popular complement to studio majors for RISD students. Offered by the Department of History of Art + Visual Culture (HAVC) in the Liberal Arts Division, courses in art history, theory, criticism and museum studies encourage students to gain a wide-lens perspective on cultures and eras in world art, and for many undergraduates, serve as a springboard to graduate study. Now a new program developed in conjunction with The RISD Museum offers select Art History concentrators a firsthand look at one art-historical profession — museum curatorship — as well as a rare level of access to museum collections.

Introduced in fall 2007, the Museum Fellows program places students in semester-long apprenticeships with curatorial departments of The RISD Museum. The positions carry course credit, require significant time commitments and involve “real work,” explains Mary Bergstein, professor and head of HAVC. “When we presented the idea to Museum Director Hope Alswang, she agreed that the Fellows should be engaged in substantive tasks — the real work of curators — rather than administrative support.” As a result, says Bolaji Campbell, assistant professor in HAVC and director of the Art History concentration, the positions “allow students to experience the behind-the-scenes workings of the museum” while they also learn the finer points of handling sensitive art objects.

Danielle Andress ’08 TX is one of the three students selected through competition for 2007-08 fellowships. Paired with Emily Peters, assistant curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs in the museum’s Siskind Center, she has spent several hours each week becoming intimately acquainted with the center’s 25,000-object collection of works on paper. After working with paper preservation specialist Linda Catano to master the art of handling the pieces, she has concentrated on locating, pulling and preparing objects for academic classes. She also assists Peters with open hours at the Siskind Center Ð the period each week when the center opens its doors to students seeking particular objects for close study.

For Andress, the fellowship experience complements her extensive coursework in HAVC and her position on RISD’s Student Gallery Board. This year’s others Fellows, Nikki Thiess-Kusiak ’09 JM (working with curatorial assistant Melissa Buchanan in Decorative Arts) and Allison Wucher ’09 PT (paired with Terry Somerson, coordinator of museum tours and docents in the Education Department), will have similarly impressive new entries for their résumés as a result of the experience. Despite the prestige of the position, though, Andress feels that the most rewarding aspect has been the opportunity to get her hands (figuratively) dirty in the Siskind Center’s countless boxes of original works Ð the chance to feed her “visual curiosity” on the museum’s extraordinary collections.

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