The culmination of the course was the opportunity for the class to work on their own exhibitions of modern American Art selected from the collection of Karen and Kevin Kennedy ’70, the Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Museum and the Wellin Museum. At the same time, the class worked on a small exhibition of physical objects from the Kennedy collection, which were displayed in the Wellin’s Archive Hall from April to November 2020.

Kennedy Collection Exhibition in Wellin’s Archive Hall, April to November 2020

Through course readings, interviews with curators and classroom discussion, students had learned that the process of exhibition design begins with the development of a “Big Idea,” a succinct concept around which the works of an exhibition are selected and which ties everything together. The physical exhibition of objects from the Kennedy Collection centers around a new generation of American artists in the first half of the 20^th century who broke every rule to help invent what we know as “modern art.” Students in the course assisted with the design of the exhibition and drafted the wall texts. However, the small size of the exhibition and the relative amount of work to be done did not provide for an effective capstone experience for the course. Instead, students were asked to work in small groups, develop their own “Big Idea” and curate a virtual exhibition using objects from the Kennedy collection, the Wellin Museum and MWP. The projects that students came up with reflect their diverse creative interests:

The Abstraction of Soil and City

An exhibition by Jay Carhart ’21 and Sam Guindon ’21

The development of abstraction as a formal technique in rural and urban landscape painting

The Black and White of New York City

An exhibition by Emma Fighera ’21 and Jesse Gross ’22

The metropolis as epicenter of Modernism

A Fine Disregard

An exhibition by Hillary Bisono Ortega ’21 and Mary Bei Prince ’20

An examination of underrepresented artists in the Modernist canon

From Foundation to Actualization: Sketches and their Counterparts

An exhibition by Olivia Munnelly ’20 and Lila Reid ’20

An exhibition of sketches and studies alongside finished work

Movement to Abstract Expressionism

An exhibition by Ellie Silk ’22 and Satchel McLaughlin ’22

The rise of Abstract Expressionism out of Modernism

Seasons of Burchfield

An exhibition curated by Lydia McGinn ’22 and Madeline Justiniano ’21

The role of seasonality in Charles Burchfield’s work

Portrayal of the Female Figure by American Female and Male Artists from 1900-1950

An exhibition by Sunny Chen ’20, Amanda Ghiloni ’22, Kathryn Kearney ’21, and Adriana Mullin ’21

An exhibition of representations of women by male as compared to female artists