Convergence: Interpreting Recent Acquisitions

Located in the West End Gallery on the second floor, this exhibition of a special selection of the Burchfield Penney Art Center’s recent acquisitions has been curated by six students at SUNY Buffalo State. Five graduate students taking the museum studies course, “Researching and Presenting Museum Collections” include Mark F. Dabney, Leah Glenn, Anna Wachtel, Olivia Weixlmann, and Reilly Wesolek. They are joined by undergrad Zoe Greenberg, who is taking “Curatorship.” They are working with Nancy Weekly, Burchfield Penney Instructor of Museum Studies at SUNY Buffalo State, who serves as the Center’s Burchfield Scholar, Head of Collections, and Charles Cary Rumsey Curator. Together they select artworks from the museum’s collection and then the student-curators conduct research to establish historic and contemporary cultural contexts for artworks that spark their curiosity. As a result, they write labels for adults and children and their texts are added to the Burchfield Penney Art Center’s document files for future reference. For their hands-on experience, students also learn installation techniques, so they can install the artworks in the West End Gallery that leads to BPAC’s Archives and Special Collections that serve as the initial site for their investigative inquiries. The exhibition will open on Friday, April 12, enabling the students to share their accomplishments both with the college community and the public. It will remain on view through November 24, 2019.