Enfilade

This collaborative installation at the Cleveland Museum of Art points to possibilities for cooperation between museums, technological opportunities for presenting works of art (not only is the website quite smart looking but the podcasts are wonderful), and — maybe most of all — remarkable pedagogical strategies. . .

Louis Jean François Lagrenée, "Sunset" (detail), 1772, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio

Beyond Oberlin: AMAM Paintings, Sculptures, and Miniatures at the Cleveland Museum of Art
January 2010–February 2011

Until early 2011, 14 works of art from the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College will be integrated into the permanent collection galleries of the Cleveland Museum of Art on the upper level of the 1916 building. Surrounded by related works from the museum, the objects from Oberlin—European works of art from the late Renaissance to the early 1800s—are reinterpreted in a new context. The combinations sometimes build on strengths of the Cleveland collections and in other cases exemplify works not represented here, therefore broadening the story told in the museum’s galleries.

The interpretation stemmed from a spring 2010 course at Oberlin College taught by the installation’s co-organizers: Andria Derstine, the Allen Museum’s Curator of Collections and Curator of European & American Art; and Jon L. Seydl, the museum’s Paul J. and Edith Ingalls Vignos Jr. Curator of European Painting and Sculpture, 1500–1800.

The Oberlin students visited the museum to study the history and display of European art and to learn about the behind-the-scenes aspects of museum work, such as storage, conservation, art handling, installation, exhibition design, and publication. The students wrote the gallery labels, and they created podcasts and longer texts for the web sites of both museums.

Works included in the show, together with the student-generated texts and podcasts are available here»