This past spring, the museum initiated a student-curated mini-exhibition space in a case on the museum’s bottom floor. Mentored by museum staff, students research and select objects to exhibit, write descriptive labels, collaborate with staff to design the installation, and give a public gallery talk. The mini-exhibitions give students valuable curatorial experience, allow the public to see unique objects and ideas that might not otherwise be on view at McClung, and help museum staff flesh out research on important objects in our collections.

Academic Programs Graduate Assistant Robert Rennie kicked off the new exhibition space in March with The First World War and Knoxville: Through the Eyes of Harry
Moreland, which explored the war through the personal military memorabilia of Moreland (1899–1969), a Knoxvillian and UT Law School alumnus (1922).

Museum volunteer, former curatorial assistant, and recent UT graduate Christine Dano Johnson curated the current mini-exhibition Land, Sea, and Spirit: Alaska Native Art from the 19th and 20th Centuries, which explores a sampling of Iñupiat and Yup’ik objects from the McClung Museum’s permanent collections.

This winter, recent UT graduate and former curatorial assistant Melinda Narro, will present Selling Egypt: Imagery in Victorian Advertising, which examines nineteenth-century trade cards and advertisements and their role in shaping stereotypical views of the Middle East in the West.

The museum looks forward to continuing the mini-exhibitions, which provide students the rare chance to create their own installation.

[above image: Christine Dano Johnson holds a Yup’ik box featured in her mini exhibition, Land, Sea, Spirit.]