Last year, administrators in the College of Arts and Sciences and Campus Planning and Operations proposed plans for an on-campus art museum in the lower level of Bellarmine Hall.

Now, a Museum Installation Seminar of eight students have joined in the efforts to make these plans a reality.

Students in the seminar, all of whom studied abroad their junior year, examined the history of college art museums, researched objects in the future Fairfield collection and considered the evolving role of museums in the 21st century.

“The course combined history and theory relating to museums and actual design work in which students took what they had learned and applied it to an actual project in the works,” said Jesus Escobar, the art history chair who led the seminar.

The semester was split into two parts. During the first half of the semester students had weekly readings on the evolution of museums and issues currently facing museums as they become more global.

Each student visited a different college, from Boston to Princeton, to research its mission as well as the incorporation of their art museum to the campus.

“Our experiences abroad generally included lots of museum trips, so we had a base from which to begin planning our museum,” said James Burns ’07, a student in the seminar.

Katherine Schwab, associate professor of art history who oversaw the seminar after Escobar left on sabbatical, said the trips were “a means of analyzing decisions made by each institution.”

“Each gallery or museum has its own unique set of challenges and opportunities, and Fairfield’s new museum is no exception,” she said.

Museum visits including meeting with a curator and a conservator at the Cloisters Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In the second half of the semester students began making plans for their own museums. They met with the campus architect, Michael Cusato, and viewed the space that is going to be home to the on-campus art museum in the lower level of Bellarmine Hall. They also discussed the logistical challenges involved in planning a museum.

“While our collection will be small it will include a wide range of art, and deciding how to place the art together in an intelligent an dynamic way was a challenge which our seminar tackled as a group,” said seminar student Teresa O’Toole ’07.

The class often met in Loyola to create a scale model of the space and objects. They also discussed methods to display the wide range of objects together in a cohesive and dynamic way.

The students did two presentations, one of which was presented to the chair of the College Board of Advisors, Jorge Figueredo, Noel Appel, Advancement Liaison to the Board, as well as College of Arts and Sciences Dean Timothy Snyder. The second presentation was made to the students of the College of Arts and Sciences Board of Advisors at the January meeting.

“I was most excited by their decision to propose a 15th century wall, which is in honor of St. Ignatius’s life, and art objects associated with that time helped lend a global dimension to the museum as opposed to the sort of arrangement one usually experiences with museums that are partitioned based on regions of origin of the art they exhibit,” said Snyder.

“The new art museum and its exhibitions will provide a beautiful setting to study and contemplate material culture and works of art from all over the world and across many different chronological periods,” Schwab said.

However, funding for the new museum has not yet been finalized, according to O’Toole.

“The Fall 2006 seminar on museum installation gave students an extraordinary opportunity to conduct research on museum planning and design with the goal of providing a three-dimensional model for the new Bellarmine art museum. The resulting model is a compelling visualization of the museum space and a clear sense of where works of art should be installed,” said Schwab.

Students who are pursuing careers in art history said they were inspired by the course.

“This [experience] was invaluable for me because it was a hands-on practical application of what art historians that work in the museum field are dealing with,” O’Toole said. “The class was really unique, and I had an amazing time. Due to our small number we really got an intensive look at the operation and challenges of museums in the United States today.”

Another seminar student, Amanda Le Clair ’07, agreed.

“The Museum Installation class with Dr. Escobar was by far the most interesting and uniquely challenging class I have taken in my four years at Fairfield,” she said.

“Whether or not our design for the museum will be used in the final creation of the museum, I loved having the opportunity to participate in a project that will continue to benefit Fairfield for many years. The class and the project served as an excellent way to conclude my art history degree,” she said.

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