Exhibition as Experience
My experience is quite different this time around in that it's not an exhibition that I visited in the sense of visiting an exhibition, but it's focused on my time developing and creating an exhibition myself that was on display at the VMFA. Starting last fall, I was part of a VMFA program called the Museum Leaders in Training (MLiT) Program. The main part of that experience was developing an Exhibition for the VMFA to be displayed at the Art Education Center. The program was then divided into four different groups each focusing on an aspect of the group-selected theme - VMFA: Beneath the Surface. My particular group was tasked with exploring the history of a particular statue and the chronology it undertook before its display. We selected the Statue of Septimius Severus and traced its history from Italy to New York to Richmond. We then also detailed the various facets of the museum involved in helping the statue get to display. When we finished we had our own wall detailing our research in an accessible exhibition, Overall, that experience allowed me to understand better the intricacies behind exhibitions and the extent of work required to make them work. The show hung from December to April.
https://vmfa.museum/pressroom/news/vmfa-special-exhibitions-gallery-installations-5/
https://vmfa.museum/pressroom/news/vmfa-special-exhibitions-gallery-installations-5/