Ellie Kahn
Contributing Writer
Throughout the semester, Wooster students have been collaborating with The College of Wooster Art Museum (CWAM) for an interactive multi-dimensional approach to learning.
CWAM has been an integral part of the upper-level art history course titled The Art of Medieval Devotion, which is taught by Professor Kara Morrow. Students in the course have also been working alongside Kitty Zurko, director of CWAM.
The Art of Medieval Devotion has a variety of focuses. Mackenzie Clark ’19, a student in the course, explains that the class has been learning about “devotional arts of the Middle Ages, as well as the kind of work that goes into curating an art exhibit, like loaning items, marketing the show and arranging a gallery space.”
Students in the course have put these concepts into action by planning the upcoming art exhibition “Saints, Relics, and Images: The Art of Medieval Devotion Research Lab.”
Working closely with Zurko and Morrow, each student was assigned an art piece for the show to thoroughly research, analyze and write about.
By becoming “experts” on a specific piece, the students have been able to learn about devotional arts in the Middle Ages, as well as develop the skills needed to curate an art exhibition.
The pieces included in the exhibition were loaned to CWAM by various organizations, including the Kruizenga Art Museum in Mich., the Loyola University Museum of Art in Chicago and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Art Galleries.
According to Clark, this exhibit is particular noteworthy because “it is the first time that CWAM has loaned objects from other museums to use in a student-curated show. This has provided a great opportunity for the students to learn not just about the objects, but about all of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into getting the objects here and planning for such a collaborative show.”
The gallery will be open as a Research Lab until March 8 for students in The Art of Medieval Devotion to closely research the objects and put their curating skills into practice. During this time, there will be updates available on CWAM’s social media pages, as well as in the gallery itself.
The gallery space is open to visitors as a research lab during the museum’s regular hours which are Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1 p.m to 4 p.m.
The exhibition opens to the public on Tuesday, April 17 with a reception from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Burton D. Morgan Gallery, where the students who have curated the exhibit will be presenting and speaking about their research.