The CVAD Galleries and the Texas Fashion Collection

View of some of the garments inside the Texas Fashion Collection

Hello Everyone! I hope that you are all doing well this fine February (I can't believe January is already over!!). 

This spring I am so excited to continue on as the Onstead Fellow in Museum Education at the CVAD Galleries. This semester, I am incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to work with Annette Becker, director of the Texas Fashion Collection, on the exhibition Delight that will be in the CVAD Galleries this summer. 

For this exhibition, I will be writing a short essay for the publication that will accompany the show. In addition, I will work to create virtual programming and resources (including short videos) that can accompany the exhibition. I am very excited to be a part of this and to really get to see all that goes on behind the scenes when it comes to putting an exhibition together. 

Another fun thing that I did a couple of weeks ago-- I got to move around some art in the galleries. It was so cool to me to be able to put on a pair of gloves and actually be so close to a work of art. Even though it was a small thing, I thought it was super exciting! One of the best things about being a part of a smaller institution is that you really do get to do a little of everything.

As a whole, I am very glad that this semester I am able to complete all of my hours face-to-face at the galleries and the Texas Fashion Collection. It is great to see some new faces regularly and to work in a different space (I am definitely getting to that point where working from home is almost unbearable).

I hope that you all have a great start of 2021! 

 

New Year, New Team

 Hello friends, 

As the title reads, this is a new year and I am officially on a new team - the Community teaching team! Last year during my fellowship I was put on the Gallery teaching team, but I have moved over to the Community team this year so that I may have some opportunities to understand what community outreach entails and learn the ropes. ALSO, the Community team just hired a new educator and it is the wonderful and amazing Briana Long (shoutout to Briana if she is reading this!). Briana and I are both in the office on the same days which has been a lot of fun and we even tried our hand at art installation last week for a gallery downtown called Artes de la Rosa (we had no idea what we were doing and I totally made Briana be the one standing on the ladder, ladders just kind of scare me). So this year has already started off on a good note!

I am just starting to help plan one of the first programs of the year which are Carter in the Classroom, where we will pre-record videos with some art history background info and some art prompts for high school students. I'm excited to write lessons for older students because I can dive into the history a bit more which is a lot of fun for me! I am also planning on leading our DEAI discussion next month and I decided to dive into the topic of White Supremacy in Art Museums - woo, big stuff. I am really nervous about that, but I will let you guys know how it goes in a month! 

Writing my thesis, applying for jobs/internships, and TAing for 5 classes on top of this fellowship is a lot and I am pretty exhausted. Just really ready to graduate honestly! I hope everyone is doing well and I look forward to reading about everyone's experiences this semester. :)

Emma Ahmad