UT Art students design exhibition, Paris: City of Art, at TMA

The art history program at the University of Toledo and the Toledo Museum of Art are inaugurating a new curriculum in art museum practices. As part of the new curriculum, UT students are currently creating an exhibition, Paris: City of Art, which will be on view at the TMA from Nov. 6, 2009, through March 14, 2010.

According to Richard H. Putney, the University’s director of art history, a major goal of the program is for art faculty to work with Museum professionals in providing hands-on training for University students in the design of art exhibitions. The latter will make use of the Museum’s collections and be installed in its Hitchcock and Stevens Galleries.

University of Toledo students examine a lithograph by Toulouse-Lautrec with Tom Loeffler, collections manager for works on paper, in the Print Study Room at the Toledo Museum of Art. The students, from left to right, are Jason Duffield, a double major in art and art history; Michelle Sanderson, a double major in art and art history; Amanda Martínez, an art history major; and Linda Meyer, a graduate student in liberal studies with a special focus on art history. Loeffler (far right) looks on while the students discuss whether to include the work in the new exhibition, Paris: City of Art.  Photo courtesy of Richard H. Putney of the University of Toledo.

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It is hoped the curriculum also will strengthen the existing partnership between the University and the Museum. The UT Center for the Visual Arts, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank O. Gehry, is home to the University’s Department of Art and the Museum’s Art Reference Library. Structurally connected to the Museum’s main building, the UT CVA provides students an invaluable opportunity to incorporate one of the nation’s finest art collections into their studies.

A class of 37 undergraduate and graduate students are designing Paris: City of Art with the help of Carolyn Putney, the Museum’s head curator and interim deputy director, and Richard Putney.

Making use of numerous works selected by the students from the Museum’s collection, the exhibition will focus on three major themes: the city itself and its evolution; the people of Paris from diverse eras in the city’s history, and Paris as an innovative center for the creation and exhibition of works of art.

Many works being exhibited are not regularly seen in the Museum’s galleries. Installation of the works, which will be complete by early November, will be followed by installation of interpretative materials by mid-December, Richard Putney said.

The exhibit will be open to the public free of charge. Admission to the Museum is always free. The exhibition is made possible with support from members of the Toledo Museum of Art and the Ohio Arts Council, which helps to fund programs with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence, and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.