Teaching With Exhibitions
Exhibitions at Carleton serve and extend the teaching mission of the college. Therefore, our program seeks to engage our academic core in ways that enrich our curricular and co-curricular offerings. Highlighting artworks, artifacts, and images of aesthetic, historical, scientific and cultural interest, exhibitions add valuable aesthetic, conceptual, and pedagogical dimensions to the curriculum, and extend the conversation around art and ideas to internal and external audiences through co-curricular events and activities.
Actively engaging faculty and students, Carleton aims to develop exhibitions and curatorial practice as effective tools for cultural understanding, as formats for critical thinking and as a platform for the production and communication of knowledge. In addition, the program promotes visual literacy and seeks to develop the skills and concepts to create, appreciate, and learn effectively from exhibitions.
The Exhibitions Program is multi-faceted. Carleton College offers a multi-faceted exhibition program that is hosted at the Perlman Teaching Museum, the Gould Library, and other more informal spaces. Exhibitions, organized by museum professionals, by faculty, and by students, embody a variety of curatorial and conceptual approaches.
In keeping with the global reach of the curriculum, and the depth and breadth of the liberal arts, the program features diverse artists, art, media, fields of inquiry and expression, cultures, time periods, themes, and types of objects. In addition to showcasing Carleton’s own collections, our program pursues short-term and long-term loans from other institutions for exhibits that embody specific themes and techniques.
The Exhibitions Program is inclusive and collaborative. The varied nature of our program, both in terms of sources and audiences, demands attention to the ways in which exhibitions can serve the entire campus community. Therefore, we aspire to offer curatorial opportunities for all students and faculty. Responding to broadly collective input, the Arts and Exhibitions Committee works to maximize programmatic synergies and to make the most efficient and flexible use of resources.