Partnership with the Atlanta University Center Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective

The Early College Program in Art History and Curatorial Studies is a co-educational program at Spelman College designed to encourage rising junior and senior high school students of color to pursue undergraduate studies in art history and curatorial studies at Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, or Spelman College. The High Museum of Art partnership connects students to the High Museum’s collection, curators, and staff.

Ways of Seeing: Art History, Curating and Museums examined selected examples of African American and Western art via an online immersive four-week course. The Ways of Seeing course introduces the discipline of art history and the practice of art appreciation through a survey of significant artworks in African American art and visual culture alongside selected examples of art in the Western tradition. Students are familiarized with museums and other sites where art may be exhibited, including archives and libraries. They learn how curators and other professionals interpret art and other objects entrusted to their care; further explore the changing demands of museum audiences; and carefully analyze the matter of diversity in the profession and within collections and institutions to determine how difference, in a broad sense, is reflected and shaped by art and museums. Over the month, students explored art history and museum professions and other possibilities for a future in which they have the choice to change the world.

The summer 2020 cohort’s online exhibitions, shown below, were published on the AUC GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) Center for Collaborative Teaching and Learning’s Omeka portal.

The Erasure of Black Women in the Civil Rights Movement
Curated by Renee Williams, Sanaa Pate, and Sheyla Street

Time and Time Again: Is History Repeating Itself through Photography?
Curated by Cydne Swanson, Elle Black, and J’Taelii Heath

The Past Is Not Over: Exploring Pain, Progress, and Humanity during the Civil Rights Movement
Curated by Janet Amuh, Kayla Ary, Lillian Grace Jackson, and Mayha Waddy

The Impacts of a Divided America: The Faces behind the Civil Rights Movement
Curated by Nia Fletcher, Avery Gilliam, Olivia Jones, and Paris Roberson

Humanity behind the Movement
Curated by Airis Aaron, Breeze Smith, Caitlin Johnson, and Clarke Austin