Lasting Impressions: Students Explore Art, Cultural History
Renowned curator provides behind-the-scenes glimpse of NGA exhibition
by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson
Students in French and art history classes traveled to Washington, D.C., in November to investigate a key movement in cultural history. As they drank in an acclaimed exhibition at the National Gallery of Art (NGA), they also caught a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what it takes to bring such anticipated events to life.
The students went to D.C. to view the NGA exhibition 1874: The Impressionist Moment. This show highlights the social, cultural and artistic revolutions afoot at the start of the revolutionary Impressionist movement.
Trips such as this are baked into Dickinson's art & art history and world language programs. While art students get to see famous works up close and learn about current developments in the art world, the language learners practice using specialized vocabulary words in a natural way, as they chat about the art they see. But this particular trip—co-sponsored by the Dean and Provost Office’s Fund for Humanistic Inquiry, the French and art departments, the Trout Gallery, the French Club and the Center for Career Development—paved the way toward still more rewards, thanks to the college's connections with a renowned curator.
Mary Morton, who co-curated the exhibition, is head of the NGA's French paintings department and a recipient of the French Ministry of Culture's Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. A few days before the D.C. trip, the students took part in a Zoom lecture with Morton to learn about the cultural, artistic and historic events informing, and informed by, the works they were about to see.
“I found Dr. Morton’s in-depth analysis of certain pieces in the collection and to be very helpful to refer to when I went to the exhibit in person,” says Lina Najdi ’28, who’s taking a French class this semester and was particularly interested in learning about the influence of the Franco-Prussian War on French religion and art.
After touring the exhibit in D.C., the art students seized an opportunity to network with the pros over lunch. Morton; Maggie Wessling, NGA photograph conservator; and Trustee Emeritus Eric Denker ’75, head of exhibitions for the Stanford in Washington Art Gallery and a former senior lecturer/head of adult tours at the NGA, outlined their professional paths and discussed conservation and museum careers.
“They reminded us that there are so many different types of jobs in the museum sector and that we should be open to getting our foot in the door however we can,” says Lily Swain ’25, a double major in French and art history, who intends to follow that advice. “I'd love to live and work in one of the D.C. museums, so this is a good way to start working toward that future for myself.”
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Published December 31, 2024