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A Duke Partnership Offers Students Hands-on Experience

In collaboration with Duke’s Art, Art History & Visual Studies department, the Nasher Museum offers a Concentration in Museum Theory & Practice to undergraduates within the Art History major. The Concentration is limited to Art History majors, but courses are open to all students. The series of classes allows students insight into the nature and ideology of the museum as a cultural institution, while also providing hands-on experience as students are taught and mentored by museum staff to gain essential career preparation.

Past Curatorial Practicum Classes

Duke student Maria Espinosa (T’20) works on cataloguing the objects in the Nasher Museum’s teaching collection. Used alongside our permanent collection, this group of objects can be touched and examined by visitors during tours and by students conducting collection research. Ellen C. Raimond, Ph.D., assistant curator of Academic Initiatives at the Nasher Museum, oversees our internship program and consults on Maria’s progress here. Photo by J Caldwell.
Duke student Maria Espinosa (T’20) works on cataloguing the objects in the Nasher Museum’s teaching collection. Used alongside our permanent collection, this group of objects can be touched and examined by visitors during tours and by students conducting collection research. Ellen C. Raimond, Ph.D., assistant curator of Academic Initiatives at the Nasher Museum, oversees our internship program and consults on Maria’s progress here. Photo by J Caldwell.

In Fall 2019, the Curatorial Practicum gave students the opportunity to conceptualize and execute an exhibition in the Incubator Gallery. The students curated a selection of works of art from the Nasher Museum’s Art of the Americas collection for the exhibition Cultures of the Sea: Art of the Ancient Americas. This class was taught by Julia McHugh, Ph.D., Trent A. Carmichael Curator of Academic Initiatives, who has brought expertise in ancient American art to Duke for the first time in 25 years.

In 2017, students in the Curatorial Practicum taught by assistant curator Molly Boarati organized Courtside: Photographs by Bill Bamberger, an exhibition of vibrant color photographs that capture a variety of basketball hoops around the world.

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Making of an Exhibition

Seven seniors knew from the course description that a class, Curatorial Practicum: Exhibition Development and Design, would give them the opportunity to organize an exhibition at the Nasher Museum. They did not expect thei...

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The History and Theory of Curatorial Practice Class

Marshall N. Price, Ph.D., Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art teaching a previous class to Duke students at the museum. Photo by J Caldwell.
Marshall N. Price, Ph.D., Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art teaching a previous class to Duke students at the museum. Photo by J Caldwell.

In the last two decades, terms like “curator” and “to curate” have become commonplace in today’s popular lexicon. Advanced degree programs in curatorial studies have proliferated around the world and publications dedicated to curatorial practice have increased. In Fall 2019, the Nasher offered History and Theory of Curatorial Practice, taught by Marshall N. Price, Ph.D., Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.

The class examined various approaches to curatorial practice in a global context, including the rise of the biennial, performance art and non-traditional venues, as well as curatorial critique. The course included a unit on Indigenous curatorial methodologies to coincide with the exhibition, Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now.

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Raising the Cultural Bar on Campuses

When you think of Duke University, the image of its gothic-style chapel may come to mind, or perhaps Cameron Indoor Stadium, the raucous center of the Blue Devil basketball games. But tucked along Campus Drive here, amid t...

view article on The New York Times | Published March 12, 2019

Collection Research

The Nasher Museum’s Study Storage offers faculty and students up-close experience with works of art not currently on view in the exhibition pavilions.

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