Curators
Alexa Chabora, ’18 is a History of Art major at Bryn Mawr College with a strong interest in Photography and Contemporary Art. Over the course of this 360 she has greatly enjoyed researching and working hands-on with objects in Special Collections, and collaborating with fellow student curators. This exhibition strengthened her desire to pursue a career in curating and Museum Studies as well as her passion for teaching others about art. Alexa has previously worked at the Thomas J. Watson Research Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Academy Museum in New York City.
Lizhu Duanmu, ’17 is a History of Art major at Bryn Mawr College with particular interests in Chinese Art, Modern Art and Museum Studies. During the fall semester of her senior year, she developed a Praxis Program focusing on art conservation and conservation science. Interning in the analytical lab at the Conservation Department at Philadelphia Museum of Art, she performed data analysis on samples collected from art objects. For this 360°, she is passionate about learning curatorial practices and exploring the art in the college’s Special Collection with the faculty and her fellow students.
Abi Lua, ’19 is a History of Art major with a Chinese minor at Bryn Mawr College. She has studied fine arts throughout high school, specializing in water-color and pastel portraiture, and has helped with arranging the school district-wide art show for several years. She now expresses this love for art in college by combining it with academia through art history. From helping plan guest artist lectures with the events committee to writing catalogue entries, Abi has found this 360° course cluster to be an enriching experience that has helped solidify her desire to study art history both at an undergraduate and graduate level.
Sarah O'Connell, '17 is an East Asian Languages and Cultures major with a passion for Japanese art. Throughout her final year at Bryn Mawr, Sarah has been privileged enough to get to work with her fellow curators on creating an exhibition that examines and invites questions about the self, and in the process has gained a new appreciation for the work of the curator. Having also simultaneously curated Bryn Mawr's "The Tale of Genji: From Princess to Pop Culture" and Haverford's "A Glimpse of Japan" exhibits last semester, Sarah's love for curating has only grown, and she is incredibly grateful to her fellow curators, professors, and the Bryn Mawr 360° program for allowing her the opportunity to work hands-on with such powerful works of art.
Cassie Paul, ’18 is a History of Art major and Museum Studies minor at Bryn Mawr College with a passion for Bryn Mawr College’s history, particularly the campus architecture. She is interested in institutional history as it intersects with collections and she is exploring this interest through a Praxis Project in the College Archives with the collection of Bryn Mawr's Songbooks. Cassie would like to work in the field of museum librarianship. She is excited to be seeing more of Bryn Mawr’s collections through this 360.
Alex Wilson , '17 My desire to enter the art world has been confirmed by participating in this 360 course. I realize the level of influence a curator can have over the public based upon the decisions they make in an exhibition- from the words in a wall text to the positioning of the artwork on the wall. This exhibition is an embodiment of the creativity that a collaboration can accomplish, and my participation in this course has given valuable insight into the world of the curator. What made this experience so exciting for me was the fact that people from different backgrounds utilizing different art objects could make such a unified exhibition. I am honored to have been a part of such a wonderful group of student curators, and can only hope my co-workers in the future will have the same qualities as Bryn Mawr students.
Xiaoya Lily Yue, ’18 is a History of Art major and International Studies minor. She is an international student from Jinan, China. She is interested in modern and contemporary art, especially Impressionism and the fuse of eastern and western art. She interned at the Palace Museum in Beijing 2016 summer and is thinking about going into the art market and art management business.
Zixin Zeng , ’18 is a History of Art major and Economics minor at Bryn Mawr College. She is from Beijing, China and is interested in the contemporary art market. In the summer of 2016, she took an internship at ART NOVA 100 in Beijing working as an assistant curator with young artists (born after 1980) from China, Korea, and Japan. As a member of the event committee for this exhibition, she is passionate about connecting artists to the public through activities and events. She is looking forward to work with artists in the future and to explore the dynamic world of contemporary art.
Zichu Zhao, '18 from Beijing, China. History of art major.
Laurel McLaughlin is an M.A. student in the History of Art at Bryn Mawr College focusing on post-enlightenment theories of embodiment within performance art. She is working on her thesis with Professor Homay King entitled, A Cyborgian Disclosure: Performance and Experiential Knowledge in Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s The Annunciation (Marian Ilmestys). Previously, she received an M.A. from The Courtauld Institute of Art, London and her B.A. in Art History and English from Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC. She is pursuing a curatorial career and has interned and worked as a curatorial assistant on exhibitions ranging from International Pop at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, World War I and American Art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the upcoming retrospective Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World at PAFA. Most recently she co-curated passages at FJORD Gallery with the University of Pennsylvania's Incubation Series, featuring the work of UPenn MFA students (currently on view) and she is co-curating an exhibition with fellow Bryn Mawr graduate student Mechella Yezernitskaya entitled, Beyond Boundaries: Feminine Forms at both PAFA and Bryn Mawr College for Fall 2017.
