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Opportunities
[ www.vcu.edu/artweb/gallery]
The department interacts closely with VCU’s Anderson Gallery, operated by the School of the Arts. The gallery maintains significant permanent collections of 19th-20th century prints, including the only known van Gogh etching, works-on-paper, and folk and traditional arts such as African masks and Maya textiles. Art history students regularly serve as interns, docents, volunteers and part-time employees to the gallery. The gallery maintains a yearly exhibition calendar of student and national works, as well as related publications.
The department maintains a close professional relationship with numerous prestigious local and regional museums including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts [ www.vmfa.state.va.us], the Maymont Foundation [ www.maymont.org], the Virginia Historical Society [ www.vahistorical.org], the Valentine Richmond History Center [ www.richmondhistorycenter.com], Colonial Williamsburg [ www.history.org], and Smithsonian Institutions in Washington, D.C. Department faculty and graduate students regularly publish, teach classes and guest curate exhibits for these institutions, and museum personnel frequently teach adjunct classes for the department. Art history students serve numerous positions at these institutions as docents, volunteers, interns and employees. Students enrolled in the Museum Studies program receive direct field experience by completing a minimum of 3 credits of a museum internship. Internships may and have been fulfilled through any accredited local, regional, national and international museum or gallery institution. Students not enrolled in the Museum Studies program are also eligible to gain museum experience through an internship. Students may also fulfill internships through local galleries such as 1708 Gallery [ www.1708gallery.org].
Each spring since 1992 the department has presented the VCU Symposium on Architectural History and the Decorative Arts: New Findings from the Department of Art History, a symposium which highlights current research by graduate students from the department. VCU is the only American university that presents an annual architectural history conference as a showcase for its own graduate students’ research. Cosponsored by the Virginia Historical Society and other distinguished institutions, and presented each autumn, the symposium has addressed such themes as Jefferson’s Architectural World (1993), Women and Virginia Architecture (1995), Architecture and the Decorative Arts (1997), and Classics and Classicism (2001). Session chairs for the one-day event are chosen from academic and professional organizations throughout Virginia. The symposium is organized by Dr. Charles Brownell of the department faculty, and has garnered the department international acclaim as a center for Jeffersonian studies.
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