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| Sherrie Levine, After Piet Mondrian, 1983 |
Hello Everyone!
My name is Julianna and I am in my third semester studying Art History at the University of North Texas. Currently, I am the CVAD Galleries Onstead Fellow in Art Museum Education.
It has only been a few weeks since I have begun working at the CVAD Galleries, but I am so thrilled for the opportunity and I am enjoying every minute of it. I am so lucky to have this opportunity for professional development at a time when COVID-19 has made opportunities such as this incredibly scarce. That being said, it has been incredibly difficult to navigate the pandemic and all of the feelings of fear, anger, and loneliness that come with it, an issue that I am sure that we are all having. But having these opportunities has made more hopeful for my professional future and given me something to put my energy into.
Right now, I am working on a project that I hope will come to fruition within the next few weeks. Focusing on conceptual art, specifically the work by Sherrie Levine After Piet Mondrian (image above), I am hoping to facilitate conversation surround appropriation and ownership when it comes to art as well as a short art-making activity. I have been excited to learn more about conceptual art throughout this process and look forward to taking my first stab at creating a program.
Stefanie Dlugosz-Acton, the director of the CVAD Galleries, has been wonderful to work with. She has been incredibly supportive of all of my ideas that I have for programming over the next two semesters. In addition, she has been so kind as to support me by setting up meetings with people from other institutions to allow me to get to know more people in the industry and to start networking. She is a wonderful mentor and every week I am thrilled to chat with her about my ideas and get her advice as I enter into the intimidating world of museums.
In addition, I am finishing up a virtual internship with the Girl Museum. Over the last few months I have worked as a curatorial intern for their upcoming project about consumption. This program is all about girls' roles in the production, preparation, and consumption of food. My role has been to research girls' roles in agriculture around the world (both historically and in the contemporary). In addition I have worked on researching the role of girls as hunters and gatherers and created a small art project and activity about scavenging. It has been difficult, albeit interesting, to find this kind of research because the role of girls has been historically underrepresented (even more so than their adult counterparts). I am so glad that I have had the opportunity to do this work and bring attention to the incredibly important roles girls play in the production of food.
It has been a wild ride so far. I have so much going on this semester as I am working on my art history colloquium, working two internships, doing classes, and working as a TA, but I am so grateful to have these opportunities at a time when it might be easier to put a pause on professional development.
Here's to hoping isolation ends sooner rather than later so that I can see everyone's lovely faces again.
Cheers!
-Julianna Morris
