I am interested in the role the visual arts play in the public humanities. I am studying public art, artist residencies, and visual arts museums. One of the primary reasons I chose this program is its mixture of practical and theoretical approaches to study. By allowing the two to live in perpetual conversation, the program trains students in the best possible way. To that end, I am happy that while I study I can also continue my job as the co-curator of the Berwick’s Artist in Research (AIR) Program. For the past two years I have been the educational coordinator and researcher for Errol Morris, a documentary filmmaker. Errol’s current projects investigate the relationships between photography and truth, including Standard Operating Procedure, a film about the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal. The film looks at, interprets, and presents the role photography played in both the abuse and our interpretations of it and the soldiers involved.
Early in my career I worked in and with art museums and magazines as a writer and editor. Then, my professional life took a long detour. Still, I volunteered for art, history, and cultural organizations in my spare time. I also continued to think about my research interests: 1) the historical and theoretical dimensions of museums and 2) the ways in which artifacts participate in the social construction of race, citizenship, and other categories of identity. I hope to connect my scholarly work to that of cultural institutions and to the needs of broader publics, so training in the public humanities is indispensible. This program is ideal because it encourages theoretical inquiry as well as the development of practical skills. One of the program’s greatest strengths is its students. The learning that goes on outside the classroom is enriched by the diverse experiences and perspectives that each individual brings to our collaborative work. And, to a person, my peers are generous with their time, opinions, and friendship. The same is true of the instructors and staff at the John Nicholas Brown Center. Being able to do work that I love in a supportive, collegial environment is – and I know this sounds corny – a dream come true. But for someone like me, who is returning to the humanities after work in other fields, being in this program really feels as though I’ve finally come home.
I came to this program from Chicago, where I was working at the National Museum of Mexican Art (NMMA). I had been exploring my interests in creating social change and mitigating prejudice through work in museums there and was given the opportunity to curate an exhibition. "Who Are We Now? Roots, Resistance, and Recognition" is on tour nationally with "The African Presence in México," a major exhibition of the NMMA. I knew I wanted to continue my studies in curatiorial work and museum work, and I was drawn to this program because of its interdisciplinary nature, the diversity of potential work I might do both in the program and after I graduate, and, I now know, the diversity of people. In my first semester, I am taking classes in four different departments including a class in public art at RISD, and I am involved in far too many fascinating projects for my own good. These include planning a roaming exhibition called "The Bus Project" along with the other students in the public humanities program and working with high school students on public programming for Rosie Branson Gill and Meg Rotzel’s exhibition, Art+History.
I applied to the public humanities program because I had grown tired of hearing, “History? What are you going to do, teach?” In fact, I had started answering in the affirmative, because it was easier than trying to clumsily explain what it was I really wanted to “do” with history. But being in this program has changed that. It has provided me with the resources to discover areas of work and study I was only dimly aware existed. It has connected me with fascinating and dedicated people studying, doing, and creating work I had never really imagined. I now finally have a real sense of what I’m truly interested in and the language with which to describe those interests: I am interested in issues of landscape, community, and identity; namely the various ways that people perceive and interact with the natural and built environment (if, in fact, those are different things); and particularly in small towns and rural areas. I currently spend a lot of time thinking about the histories of resource use and management on local, state, and national scales, and these histories’ implications (or lack thereof) on our understandings of today. I also have a much more vibrant sense of the different types of media, venues, and ways that people are presenting their own work and ideas about these and many other types of issues.
My interest in the M.A. program in public humanities at Brown was piqued by a chance encounter with a JNBC press release. Of their own accord, the administrators at the Center, where I had worked briefly on an exhibit as an undergrad at Brown, instituted the University's first fellowship for the study of the public history of slavery. It was a bold move, and one taken voluntarily; I thought to myself: “If I were going to apply to any grad program, it would be a progressive one with an against-the-grain ethos, not one that follows the trends reluctantly.” The program staff at the JNBC is excited and adventurous in their approach to the public humanities, always going above and beyond to connect students with resources. More importantly, the students the program has begun to attract are poised to be the next generation of nonprofit leaders and arts administrators. My interests in context-driven public programming, Black Diasporic art, and emergent publics have led me to take courses in Brown's esteemed Africana studies and American civilization departments, at RISD, and in Brown's archaeology department. Currently, I'm looking forward to embarking on more collaborative work with my cohort as well as an upcoming summer practicum.
I came to the public humanities program following a yearlong internship with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s Department of Architectural Collections Management and Conservation. When I started looking for graduate programs, I was torn between continuing with historic preservation and returning to my undergraduate background in cultural anthropology. The public humanities program offered the perfect compromise, allowing me to look at both the tangible and the intangible sides of heritage in an academically rigorous environment. This semester, a class I’m taking on international cultural heritage pulls on the same issues I considered for a previous research project on tourism and national identity, while part-time work at the Nightingale-Brown House and another historic property on campus enable me to continue developing collections management and curatorial skills. My principal interests lie in the linkages between the material world (from entire landscapes to single objects) and constructions of identity at both personal and communal levels, and I look forward to honing my focus through courses and the two practicums.
