Monday, November 30, 2009

Decisions Decisions Decisions

The curators have been busy deciding on design and layout for the gallery. Have you ever stopped by the Boyden Gallery on the St. Mary's College of Maryland campus? Take a look around! There are many different factors that are involved in designing an exhibition space. Some of these include color, layout, space and many more!

All of these decisions are very important in the process of curating. Nevertheless, the art often dictates how the space is arranged. For instance, a gallery filled with roman statues might be organized differently from a gallery filled with abstract expressionistic works. In a way, curators are artists themselves! They need to manipulate space, create visual interest, and all together engage the viewer!

That's what we're up to right now! Check out the gallery and take into account the space and how its used.

What would you do if you were in charge of an exhibition?

Monday, November 16, 2009

What's Going on with the Curators?

Hello curious visitors!

We are deep in the process of designing the exhibition for this January! But we didn't realize how much work really goes into an exhibition. Can you imagine all of the steps involved? Often exhibitions seem to appear overnight. As if the art work magically appear upon the white walls. Nope! Lots of work goes into designing an exhibition and curators are constantly considering all options to all possible components to an exhibition.

So far in our curatorial process we have been organizing, choosing, deciding, creating, designing, writing, discussing, debating, thinking, planning, *phew!*
(well you get the idea! here are a few examples!) ...

~ Selecting and narrowing down art work. Each curator has hand picked artwork for YOUR exhibit! Later on YOU can decide which piece from a pool of artwork will be added to the exhibit!
~ Designing Postcards and the Catalog for the exhibit
~ Creating Websites (this one!) We also have a "Fan Page" on Facebook! Become a fan here!
~ ResearchResearchResearch! Lots of research goes into planning an exhibition. We have been investigating artists and their artwork.
~ Monitoring the budget.
~ Designing and writing labels for the exhibit.
~ And many more projects and plans!

Tune in later for images of artwork and information on how YOU can help select artwork!


Question from the Curators:

What has been your favorite art exhibit and why?
WELCOME TO WHAT LIES BENEATH: A Student Designed Exhibition.

Hello! We are students from St. Mary's College of Maryland who are exploring the unknown of our college's art collection. Our main goal in this adventure is to unite the St. Mary's county community in the process of uncovering and discovering all the potential that art has to offer! Here on our blog you can have a behind-the-scenes look at our curatorial process!

Here are a few things you can do while on our blog!
  • Check out our individual curator bios in the sidebar to the left!
  • Read about updates to the project
  • View photos of art and our process
  • Give us input! Talk to us! Comment! We would love to hear from you!
So, stay a while and join us in discovering...

WHAT LIES BENEATH

Mission Statement

We, the students of St. Mary's College of Maryland, are developing an exhibition in the Boyden Gallery featuring our choices of art from the SMCM collection while revealing our curatorial process. By showing our process, we are encouraging both the college community and the St. Mary's County community to learn about our personal experiences with the collecton in order to stimulate a dialogue between the community and the collection.