Since 2013, I have been the Curator of Collection and Exhibitions at the Roswell Museum and Art Center. During that time, I have been able to participate in a wide range of museum-related activities. I've curated or co-curated more than thirty exhibitions, transported artwork, assisted with hanging shows, helped select our current Director, written articles for everything from exhibition catalogues to the local culture magazine, conducted tours, taught workshops, and many, many other things. Roswell has been a great place to get a lot of experience, and I will always be grateful for that.
After five years, however, it's time for a change, and I'm excited to share that this fall I'll be starting my PhD in American Studies at the College of William and Mary:
This change has been a long time coming (indeed, as you may have gathered from my recent work, I've been reflecting on the daily routines I'm about to alter permanently). I've been thinking about pursuing my PhD since at least 2014, and applied for the first time in the fall of 2015. That attempt was unsuccessful, but it ultimately worked out for the best, as it allowed me to finish working on such projects as Magical and Real as well as succession planning that will leave the Museum in a better place exhibition-wise.
Staying at the Museum also helped me to discover my current focus, the WPA's community art center program. The Roswell Museum is fortunate enough to have an archive spanning its early history, and I started exploring it in earnest in 2016. Initially I was just looking into it for a conference paper, but I soon realized that the archive was far too great a topic for just one twenty-minute talk.
In 1935, during the midst of the Great Depression, the Federal Art Project, a division of the Works Progress Administration, launched the community art center program. The objective of this project was to bring the sort of arts and cultural enrichment available in larger cities to rural communities and other underserved areas. These art centers acted as a conduit between the local community and the national interests of the WPA, hosting a mixture a local programs and national exhibits. Between 1935 and 1942, over one hundred of these centers opened around the country, including the Roswell Museum.
What interests me about this particular program is the travel infrastructure underpinning it. In the 1930s, visitors to the Roswell Museum and institutions like it could see contemporary prints produced in New York, mosaics from California, historical prints from the Library of Congress, and much more. Reading about these exhibitions in the Museum's archive, I started wondering about how these shows were put together: which artists were selected, or not? What were the logistical challenges of transporting these shows by railroad around the country? Who were the audiences for these exhibitions, and who didn't get to see them?
I soon realized that as engrossing as these questions are, I'd never be able to investigate them fully as long as I was the Roswell Museum's curator, as between the exhibition schedule and other demands, I wouldn't have time to really look into it. Last fall then, I applied to several programs, and I spent the month of March visiting some of the places that had accepted me. While there were a lot of great possibilities, William and Mary stood out for its faculty and abundant cultural resources available at Colonial Williamsburg and its affiliate museums. With Richmond and Washington, D.C. also nearby, I'll have no shortage of things to do or archives to visit.
After five years, however, it's time for a change, and I'm excited to share that this fall I'll be starting my PhD in American Studies at the College of William and Mary:
This change has been a long time coming (indeed, as you may have gathered from my recent work, I've been reflecting on the daily routines I'm about to alter permanently). I've been thinking about pursuing my PhD since at least 2014, and applied for the first time in the fall of 2015. That attempt was unsuccessful, but it ultimately worked out for the best, as it allowed me to finish working on such projects as Magical and Real as well as succession planning that will leave the Museum in a better place exhibition-wise.
Staying at the Museum also helped me to discover my current focus, the WPA's community art center program. The Roswell Museum is fortunate enough to have an archive spanning its early history, and I started exploring it in earnest in 2016. Initially I was just looking into it for a conference paper, but I soon realized that the archive was far too great a topic for just one twenty-minute talk.
In 1935, during the midst of the Great Depression, the Federal Art Project, a division of the Works Progress Administration, launched the community art center program. The objective of this project was to bring the sort of arts and cultural enrichment available in larger cities to rural communities and other underserved areas. These art centers acted as a conduit between the local community and the national interests of the WPA, hosting a mixture a local programs and national exhibits. Between 1935 and 1942, over one hundred of these centers opened around the country, including the Roswell Museum.
What interests me about this particular program is the travel infrastructure underpinning it. In the 1930s, visitors to the Roswell Museum and institutions like it could see contemporary prints produced in New York, mosaics from California, historical prints from the Library of Congress, and much more. Reading about these exhibitions in the Museum's archive, I started wondering about how these shows were put together: which artists were selected, or not? What were the logistical challenges of transporting these shows by railroad around the country? Who were the audiences for these exhibitions, and who didn't get to see them?
I soon realized that as engrossing as these questions are, I'd never be able to investigate them fully as long as I was the Roswell Museum's curator, as between the exhibition schedule and other demands, I wouldn't have time to really look into it. Last fall then, I applied to several programs, and I spent the month of March visiting some of the places that had accepted me. While there were a lot of great possibilities, William and Mary stood out for its faculty and abundant cultural resources available at Colonial Williamsburg and its affiliate museums. With Richmond and Washington, D.C. also nearby, I'll have no shortage of things to do or archives to visit.
Though I'd never been to Virginia prior to visiting William and Mary, I experienced a lot of deja vu here. The campus itself reminded me of Williams College and Lake Forest, where I had gone to school for my Master's and BA., while Williamsburg itself, especially the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, brought to mind my years at Shelburne and its wonderful museum.
What does all this mean for the future of The Fanciful Lobster? The short answer is, I don't know. My initial plan was to discontinue it altogether, as I remember being pretty busy as a grad student the first time around. After several years of cultivating an audience, however, I don't really want to end it. So for now, at least, my plan is to continue it. The content and format will likely change to reflect my projects, and I probably won't post as often, maybe every other week instead of weekly, for instance. If it proves to be too much I'll conclude it, but for now, I say let's give it a shot.
Orientation starts in late August, so I will be leaving Roswell this summer. Until then, I'll continue posting my regular content, as there is always plenty going on here.
Here's to new and ongoing adventures!
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