College students get hands-on experience with art show exhibition

From The Observer News.com, April 25, 2019
Most everyone has a different idea of what “home” means.
It could be a place, such as a town or city; or the building you grew up in; or, even, the people in your community.
The students of the Museum Studies: Artist As Curator course at New College of Florida wanted to explore that concept with an art exhibition called “Home,” to be held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., May 3, at the Origami Air Studio, 1063 Patterson Drive, Sarasota.
The nine students, all coming from different areas, were required to plan and execute the art exhibit for the class’s former art gallery director and local art professor Joseph Loccisano, who is teaching this semester at the public liberal arts honor college in Sarasota.
The student exhibit organizers encouraged artists to submit works in various media that illustrate what “home” means to them.
“The (Origami Air Studio) was the perfect (venue for the exhibition),” said Mia Reich, a New College senior, who is taking the class because she may pursue a career in museum management. “It’s a renovated house, one of the reasons it was chosen for our Home exhibition.”
Reich, who was appointed the executive curator for the class project and calls Cape Coral her hometown, said the exhibit space of the gallery gave the team the opportunity to quickly change how the artwork is displayed.
“There’s one large gallery and an adjacent smaller one,” she said. “The venue is quaint, and, regardless of the number of submissions, it will work.”
“Home as a theme was a collective decision,” Reich said. “We wanted something that people can connect with, and we wanted to see the different interpretations of “home.”
All of the students were given positions on the team to execute various tasks.
As executive curator, Reich said her job was to understand the tasks necessary to have a successful exhibition, to know the team member’s individual strengths, and then to delegate tasks.
“But we all have a say for the most part,” she said. “We want it to be a collaborative experience.”
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