Giving back at the Tang Museum, my campus home

I’ve always felt at home in museums, and as a student at Skidmore, I found a home away from home at the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery.  

As the 2023-24 Eleanor Linder Winter Endowed Intern at the Tang, I worked with contemporary art and artists, witnessed the inner workings of the museum, and assisted with long- and short-term curatorial projects. Of all the ways I’ve been involved with the Tang during my time at Skidmore, the Winter Internship has given me the most. Over the summer, I’ve been giving back.  

The Tang gives its endowed interns the freedom to create their own capstone project, a unique opportunity to turn an original idea into something tangible. Previous interns have curated exhibitions; organized film series; and prepared educational resources on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.  

For my project, I’m creating an interactive, self-paced visitor’s guide to the Tang. The booklet, which will be available at the museum’s front desk, will offer a series of writing and drawing prompts that ask visitors to slow down, observe, react, and engage. 

A teaching museum 

The Tang is an exemplar of a teaching museum: It's a dynamic space where learning happens formally and informally, independently and collaboratively.   

I’m designing my booklet to align with the museum's teaching mission. The open-endedness and interactivity of my capstone project is intended to be accessible to a wide audience.  

I’m working on my capstone in the Tang’s curatorial department; however, the process draws upon what I’ve learned inside and outside the museum in recent years. Being an art history and English double major at Skidmore has strengthened my research and writing skills. I’ve been a summer intern in the Tang’s public programming department and a Tang Guide, an experience that helped me to think carefully about how to engage with diverse audiences and to meet visitors where they are.  

I’ve also been a member of the Tang Student Advisory Council. Members take on a leadership role within the museum, advising staff on student engagement. Members also get to organize an exhibition in the Hyde Cabinet, a student-curated display space. 

During the summer of 2023, I purchased a D.C. license plate on eBay and exhibited it in the Hyde Cabinet. As a native of Washington, D.C, I’ve always been keenly aware of the city’s fight for statehood. D.C. license plates include the slogan “Taxation Without Representation,” which refers to the fact that city residents pay taxes, but do not have a voting representative in Congress. With the help of the Tang’s curatorial team, I wrote a descriptive wall label. I also created an educational chapbook.  

I learned how a museum exhibition comes to be by making one of my own. This experience also allowed me to showcase a part of my identity I’m proud of and to educate people on a cause that is important to me.   

My capstone project 

In my capstone project, I want to encourage visitors to think about their museum experience on three levels — artwork, exhibition, and museum — by looking closely at a single object, forming connections between objects in the same exhibition, and considering the work a museum does. In doing so, I hope to reveal the contributions of the artists, curators, architects, designers, and installers who make a museum experience possible.  

Central to my project is the contribution of the museumgoer. Each visitor enters a museum with their own assumptions, experiences, and imaginations. The booklet empowers visitors to engage with the museum on their own terms, at their own pace, and in their own way.  

To fit with the Tang’s frequent rotation of shows, the guide will emphasize skills, like close looking, instead of specific works of art or exhibitions. This feature allows the booklet to be used, reused, and replicated. (It could even be used beyond the Tang!)  

The booklet’s language, design, and format are intended to be equally accessible and engaging for an audience that is diverse in age, background, and museum-going experience.  

My research process has included exploring existing resources at other museums, talking with educators at peer institutions, and shadowing current Tang Guides. I’ve read extensively about the relationship between art and social-emotional learning, object-based learning, and museumgoers’ range of motivations.

I’m proud to be creating something that comes out of the Tang’s mission as a teaching museum and that will continue it, providing visitors and students alike with a useful tool for discovering new ways of looking at art, the museum, and the world. 

Abigail Svetlik '24

2023-24 Eleanor Linder Winter Endowed Intern