Rose+Education+Programs

Report on Educational Programs at the Rose Art Museum February 2009**
 * Emily Mello

I heard that people were wondering about the academic role of the Rose, and I thought that I might contribute to some understanding.

None of the following educational activities are funded by the University.


 * Research and Publications:**

The Rose has produced over 85 exhibition catalogues with researched texts contributed by Rose staff, Brandeis faculty and outside scholars and curators. Many of these catalogues are in high demand and we receive daily purchase orders from art historians, curators and scholars from around the world. We have a comprehensive catalogue of the collection that is at the publishers and almost ready to print. This catalogue has taken three years to research and once printed, the next step was to further attain image rights for web use and create an online version that would become a valuable tool for students of the arts everywhere.

Research does not always manifest in the printed page, but in what to include, and what not to include based on historical, thematic, or visual significance, and in the physical layout of an exhibition.


 * Internships:**

This year we have had 15 internships in curatorial, education, registration, and development. These interns are taught and supervised by Rose staff. Many of these internships are taken for academic credit. Interns complete reading, research and writing assignments related to theory and interpretation, as well as best practices and ethical issues in museums. Beyond these assignments the crucial part of the internship, which inspires graduates to go on to successful careers in the arts are the experiences they have that cannot be replaced by a textbook or a slide image. Imagine a doctor who learned everything they knew from a textbook and was asked to perform surgery without ever having seen a body. Curatorial interns see how decisions are made for objects in the physical space of the museum. Education interns don’t just read pedagogical theory; they use it to inform their teaching of the collection and exhibitions to the public and peers. They assist with the writing of didactic labels, not only based on texts, but based on what they see, and conversations with living artists and top professionals in the field. They learn art handling skills, collections management and conservation through hands on experiences. Interns from last years graduating class, have jobs that are rare to attain with only an undergraduate degree and no work experience beyond their internships. One is a registrar at a prestigious gallery on Newbury Street and the other is working on rights/reproduction and copyright at a law firm in Manhattan. Brandeis boasts many museum professionals among their alum including Adam Weinberg (Whitney) and Gary Tinterow (Metropolitan) who had direct experience with art at the Rose as undergraduates.

Classes:

Looking with the Learner is an enormously popular education class that is taught annually and takes place exclusively in the Rose. That class has been capped at 25 and we have considered creating two sections to increase the number of students we can accomodate. During the summer M.A.T. students take a class called Making Art that also takes place exclusively in the museum. The Rose staff has also co-taught Museum Studies with members of the Art History department.

Last semester Art Since 1945 (a class of over 45) and American Art, (a class of over 30) met multiple times at the Rose.

There are large number of classes that meet once or twice at the Rose for talks and activities that have been tailored to their syllabus. These classes represent multiple departments and areas of study. An abbreviated, recent list includes Creative Writing, Theatre, Psychology, TYP, Anthropology, Cultural Production, Global Studies, and countless studio art classes. This does not include the classes who have visited from Mass College of Art, UMASS Amherst, Boston University, Boston College, Harvard, and Tufts. Hundreds of K-12 students have engaged in inquiry based learning at the Rose facilitated by Rose staff and Brandeis students.

The Rose organizes talks and symposia based on exhibitions and ideas stemming from exhibitions. This semester alone we will have programs with renowned critic Irving Sandler, curator Laura Hoptman (former MoMA curator, New Museum), and architecture historians Sandy Isenstadt (Yale) and Eric Mumford (Washington University). Rather than list them all, you can see the calendar of events page on the Rose website for current and recently passed events.
 * Other:**

It is hard to imagine that the arts could thrive in an environment where the message is that we do not need to care for, or learn from, works of art. If actual works of art are not an academic priority, then why propose that the Rose be turned into an arts complex? Is there a need for future art historians, artists, and curators in a society that does not value visual forms of human expression and inquiry, beyond their market value? I say this in the hope that everyone agrees this would be impossibly tragic. However, the unthinkable is happening.

If you go to the Rose right now you will see a sunken relief of contemporary artist Ugo Rondinone’s handprint inset into the wall of the museum among pieces from the Rose collection. This simple, yet elegant gesture recalls prehistoric cave paintings that were signed with their maker’s handprint. It reminds us that the impulse to create is as old as humanity itself. I hope that the University can see that art, such a persistent aspect of our culture, is worth preserving and studying.

I'm happy to speak with anyone who has further questions.

Best, Emily

Emily Mello Director of Education Rose Art Museum Brandeis University (p)781-736-3429 (f)781-736-3439 MS 069 415 South Street Waltham, MA 02453

www.brandeis.edu/rose