"Summer Snapshot: Zo毛 Jameson '15 Researches Native American Artists for Museum Exhibition," by Feather Flores '17, 澳门六合彩开奖结果2023 News
This isone in a series looking in on the work and projects 澳门六合彩开奖结果2023 students are carrying out this summer. Jameson is working as part of the Janet Inskeep Benton 鈥79 Summer Undergraduate Research Program.
Project summary:
I鈥檓 researching contemporary Native American artists to prepare for a exhibition that will happen in about 3 to 5 years. A contemporary native artist will come in and show their art side-by-side with objects from the museum鈥檚 Native American collection, which is really big and full of things from the late 1800s and early 1900s. This exhibition will enliven the collection and make sure it鈥檚 still getting seen. I鈥檝e read a bunch of books and done tons of Googling, trying to find younger artists whose work might be particularly interesting. In the last week or so, the options narrowed down to a group of about 10 people. Because I鈥檓 graduating this year, I won鈥檛 be the one who鈥檚 here when final decisions are being made, so I鈥檓 making sure that whoever is doing this job in the future isn鈥檛 going to have to redo all my research or go digging through sloppy notes that are in six different places.
What is your mentor like?
My mentor is Kathleen Howe, the director of the museum. I met her the summer after my freshman year when I first curated an exhibition for the museum. It鈥檚 empowering to do research with somebody who has curated so many exhibitions and been published in so many places. During my research, I was reading a book and it hit me: 鈥淲ow. This essay was written by my boss.鈥 Kathleen is great because she really respects my opinions. She has so much experience and is so much more knowledgeable than me, but she really trusts me with this. It鈥檚 the coolest feeling.
What is one thing about your research so far that you find particularly interesting?
I wasn鈥檛 expecting that so many of these younger, exciting new artists would be from Canada. I think it鈥檚 because there is a lot of art funding for the Canadian First Nations. There are a lot of established galleries and museums that are interested in giving fellowships and grants to young artists. There are also a lot of efforts to encourage native artists to just be artists. Their work doesn鈥檛 have to be connected to their heritage, although that plays into it just as anybody鈥檚 heritage influences how they move through the world.
Why are you doing summer research?
The research I鈥檓 doing is so very different from any research I鈥檝e done before鈥攁s different as any research about art can be from other research about art. This is the sort of project you wouldn鈥檛 get to do in a class. I feel like I鈥檓 building skills that I wouldn鈥檛 necessarily get to build in other situations. I鈥檝e been working with the museum off and on since my freshman year and it鈥檚 nice knowing that I can come here and someone will always find work for me.
In the fall, Jameson will travel with Howe to see some of the artists she's researched.