Art Influencing Fashion at the Burchfield Penney by Kathy Gaye Shiroki

Buffalo State College Fashion Design students in Professor Erin Habes class visited the Burchfield Penney Art Center to participate in a Peer-to-Peer Tour on October 25th. Their peer tour was designed by graduate students enrolled in an Art Education course highlighting Museum Education. The graduate students guide their peers in the galleries connecting art with the current topics they are studying.

“The tour opened my mind to seeing the relationship between fashion and design in a different way.” Comment a fashion design student

When attending a Peer-to-Peer Tour students are greeted with an informal interactive tour where discussing fabric construction was a natural fit while surrounded by projected images on stretched cloth in the Useum. Students investigated textile patterns while exploring Charles Burchfield’s wallpaper and walked a run way after being influenced by portraits in the McCallum Tarry exhibition. “The art and activities are uniquely presented from a peer perspective” a student remarked.

The guides throughout the exhibitions direct the learning while connecting curriculum in a comfortable, participatory, and engaging manner.

“A wonderful “think outside” the box connection to fashion design, construction and concept. You guys brought to life the thought process of where design inspirations come from.” Reflection from Professor Erin Habes

Foundations of Museum Education, AED 505, is taught by Buffalo State College Lecturer Kathy Gaye Shiroki. She is also the Curator of Museum Learning and Community Engagement at the Burchfield Penney Art Center. Ms. Shiroki has been creatively engaging BSC students for the past five years developing peer tours for faculty and students on campus. Her recent essay Peer-to-Peer Tours was published in A Handbook for Academic Museums: Exhibitions and Education published by MuseumEtc, 2012.

Kathy Gaye Shiroki, Curator of Museum Learning and Community Engagement at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, is the curator of the Useum™. She serves as adjunct lecturer in Art Education and Museum Studies Departments at Buffalo State College and is the Coordinator of the Czurles-Nelson Gallery on campus.

Ms. Shiroki’s innovative programs reach communities in new ways. Her presentations are refreshing connections with art. Her essay on Peer-to-Peer Tours is forthcoming in the fall 2012 publication, A Handbook for Academic Museums: Exhibitions and Education published by MuseumsEtc. Peer-to-Peer Tours encourage the study of course curriculum through interdisciplinary peer learning. In this setting, the artwork at the Burchfield Penney becomes the catalyst to rethink class topics.

Kathy Gaye Shiroki earned her MFA from the University of California, San Diego, BFA from Temple University, Tyler School of Art, and Associates degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology, School of American Craftsmen.