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It’s hard to comprehend that three years have already gone by since I arrived at º£½ÇÖ±²¥ College in the fall of 2022. I remember coming across the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellowship at the º£½ÇÖ±²¥ College Museum of Art as I was finishing my graduate degree in the history of art at the University of Michigan. I was immediately drawn to the position because it offered a unique combination of two of my main interests: curatorial work in museums and college-level teaching. Little did I know then how much this fellowship would expand my experience in both these areas.

As the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow, I have coordinated a program that sees dozens of class visits come to the BCMA each semester. I have had the chance to lead many of these class visit sessions personally, which has expanded my own pedagogical toolset while giving me the opportunity to learn from the different teaching styles and methods of º£½ÇÖ±²¥ College faculty from a wide range of disciplines. In terms of on-the-job training, that’s pretty extraordinary. The most important skill I have gained from this is a genuine sense of flexibility, driven by a desire to collaborate, which has led me down numerous paths of pedagogical exploration, working up activities such as label writing and exhibition planning in addition to concept mapping, scavenger hunts, and deep, meditative looking. In one instance, a faculty instructor and I were brainstorming ideas about museum architecture and surveillance, and we landed on the plan to have one group of students covertly monitor another group who were engaged in a different observational exercise. Activities like these have ensured that each class visit brings something new, both for the students and for me. They also serve as markers of relationships and community-building, which are central to the work of the Museum. What makes campus museums so special is their capacity to bring a campus community together and in conversation with regional, national, even international communities.

I have also had the privilege of getting to work closely with some outstanding º£½ÇÖ±²¥ students. While the Mellon fellowship was not my first foray into teaching and mentoring, it was the first time I ever had to supervise student employees. I tried to make the process meaningful for them while building skills they could use later. One summer, I set my very first intern Emily Jacobs ’23 (now the BCMA’s Curatorial Assistant and Manager of Student Programs) to examining and cataloguing ephemera related to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives at º£½ÇÖ±²¥ Library. My ulterior motive was to help Emily practice techniques for archival research. She then researched and developed a program to permit students to propose art acquisitions, which is now in its second year. Emily served in fact as inspiration for a new student intern position in Campus Engagement, which was conceived as a way to bridge curatorial, academic programs, and education. The second student to fill this position was Neiman Macombe ’25, who spent a semester crafting methods for gaining student input in the Museum’s working processes. Neiman implemented a multifaceted survey, which was a success not just because of his research and labor but also due to his enthusiasm and wit, which made students want to participate. Julia Smart ’25 was an invaluable collaborator and co-conspirator as I organized the capstone exhibition project for this fellowship. Initially, I planned just to give Julia a sampling of what it means to generate texts for public reception. However, she quickly threw herself into researching and drafting gallery texts, tracking down books, forming incisive questions for visitor reflection, and offering ideas and feedback throughout most of the exhibition process. Julia then transitioned into the Curatorial Intern for Campus Engagement position and, as a member of that team, conceived of a merchandise design competition that we hope will also continue on in subsequent years and energize students and give them greater stakes in the Museum.

Community-building has been central to my curatorial projects at the BCMA. When I first arrived, almost as a trial by fire, I advised a group of five seniors in Environmental Studies as they organized the exhibition Human Nature: Environmental Studies at 50. Working with the students and their faculty mentor, Associate Professor of History and Environmental Studies Matt Klingle, I sought to nurture their individual expression while helping them meet the challenges of a project that was initially well outside their wheelhouses. During my first solo project at the BCMA, The Book of Two Hemispheres: Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the United States and Europe, I sought out faculty and student expertise to help situate Harriet Beecher Stowe’s powerful but fraught antislavery novel in the long history of transatlantic slavery and abolition. The capstone exhibition of this fellowship, Irreplaceable You: Personhood and Dignity in Art, 1980s to Now, has brought together twenty-seven contemporary artists whose work reflects on our relationships to imagery of conflict, suffering, and dispossession. In implementing this project, I partnered with several of the artists on acquisitions and loans while again drawing on the expertise of º£½ÇÖ±²¥ students and faculty, all of whom have been crucial for thinking how to frame the complex theme and interpret it for the campus community and broader audiences. A colloquium this past spring convened artists, scholars, and curators as we thought through the broader aesthetic and ethical implications of “personhood” and “dignity” in a visual world saturated with imagery meant to shock or dismay.

I want to end on a note of a profound gratitude for my colleagues at the º£½ÇÖ±²¥ College Museum of Art and across º£½ÇÖ±²¥ campus. Without making this sound too much like the acknowledgements section of a book, I nevertheless want to convey the immense extent to which colleagues and friends here have inspired, challenged, and propelled me forward. I’m confident these relationships will last for years to come. My next plans include moving to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I will be joining the University of Pittsburgh faculty as Teaching Assistant Professor of Museum Studies in the History of Art and Architecture Department. I will take what I have learned these past three years to a new campus, where I will be helping train future generations of museum professionals.

Thank you, º£½ÇÖ±²¥ community.

Sean J. Kramer