Senior Art Students Tour The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

St. Luke’s seniors enrolled in intermediate and advanced art classes visited The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut, to explore the exhibition, “52 Artists: A Feminist Milestone.” The exhibit celebrates the fifty-first anniversary of the historic exhibition Twenty Six Contemporary Women Artists, which was presented at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in 1971. The current show features work from the 1971 exhibition alongside a new roster of twenty-six female-identifying or nonbinary emerging artists, tracking the evolution of feminist art practices over the past five decades. 

Education Assistant Jinette Jimenez and Head of Installations and Facilities Chris Manning led students on a guided tour of the exhibition, emphasizing the installation’s details, including the selection of gallery paint colors, the re-installation of works featured in the original 1971 exhibition, and the challenges faced when installing specific pieces. Students also learned about the museum’s curating process, from selecting pieces to include in the exhibit to determining where to display each work of art, while adhering to installation instructions from the artists.

During their visit, students toured the museum’s receiving and workshop area, a space not normally available to museum visitors, to learn more about the process of installing an exhibit, from beginning to end including all the troubleshooting that takes place.

Students also had the opportunity to design an installation of their own using works from the exhibition. Students curated pieces they felt personally connected to by either content or aesthetics. In sharing their ideas and feedback, students engaged in meaningful conversations and provided each other with fresh insights.

The field trip exposed students to a variety of artists, mediums, and messages, as well as careers in the arts. Exploring the curation and installation process, students learned how to curate and install their own works of art in the future. Energizing and educational from beginning to end, the students’ visit to The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum was a success!