Public art generally does not aim to incite controversy after all, these sorts of open-area murals and sculptures are usually installed to visually enhance their surroundings and engage the community. However, recently pieces on least two Boston-area campuses, including Tufts, have accomplished just that. At Wellesley College, a statue of a nearly naked sleepwalking man part of an exhibit at the schools Davis Museum frightened and angered students, some of whom even signed a petition calling for its removal. Here at Tufts, the rather infamous ostrich sculpture, or Autruche II, was recently removed due to incidents of vandalism that may have permanently damaged the piece.
While these events have certainly garnered significant buzz, they speak to only one aspect of visual art and gallery space at both Tufts and other Boston-area schools. Indeed, the Tufts University Art Gallery is rather multifaceted in scope, endeavoring to make art at Tufts interdisciplinary and accessible to the entire Tufts community. With a unexpectedly impressive permanent collection, a staff dedicated to pursing innovative goals and a unique position in the Boston art scene, Tufts art gallery offers the university a surprisingly diverse cultural experience that goes beyond a single attention-grabbing sculpture.
Logistical balancing act
To casual observers it may appear that new exhibitions simply materialize in the gallery every few months, but these smooth transitions mask the lengthy and labor-intensive curatorial process required to bring a show to campus.
At any point, were looking at planning two years worth of exhibitions, Amy Schlegel, the director of galleries and collections, said.
Part of Schlegels responsibilities includes thinking about the big picture plan for the gallery.
Amy will find the exhibitions, and once she finds an exhibition and locks it in, the rest of us have ... to actually bring it here and get it up in the gallery, Lissa Cramer, the exhibitions coordinator of the gallery, said.
As such, the gallerys exhibitions reflect the work of not just Schlegel, but her whole department and oftentimes outside collaborators, such as Tufts professors and guest curators. This coordination, though, can involve more than just negotiating and cooperating with the curators themselves.
We worked with the artist or the artists representative to work out conditions that we have to [comply with], said Cramer the of current exhibit on display in the gallery, Seeing Glacial Time: Climate Change in the Arctic. Is there a loan fee? How [do] we get it shipped here? [And] we have to work within a budget.
Fitting together all of these moving parts is not an easy assignment, according to Cramer, so during the planning process Cramer, who acts as the project manager for this process, has a complex and tricky role.
She is the point of communication between us and the artist, or us and the lender or us and the printer, said Schlegel. Theres a lot of back and forth.
Its easy to understand why the gallery plans shows so far in advance. Coordinating with artists, lenders and owners can take months at a time, according to Cramer.
The various stipulations and complications do not stop once the pieces arrive at Tufts. Gallery staff is still tasked with, among other things, designing the plan for the exhibition, generating label and wall text, finding just the right Plexiglas cover for particular pieces and perfecting the lighting. With all of these different elements in play at once, the whole process of bringing an exhibition to campus can feel like one long balancing act.
We have all of these considerations [to work out], said Schlegel. Were constantly [in the process] of doing this.
An interdisciplinary approach
Once an exhibition is open, the gallery staff also collaborates with professors and students. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, art history faculty and majors do not necessarily top this list. Several professors from an assortment of departments choose to bring their classes to the gallery, utilizing artwork in new and varied ways.
Generally, Schlegel and Cramer find that classes tend to visit the gallery when the exhibit has a direct tie to course material. Contemporary art classes, for example, are frequent visitors due to the high amount of contemporary art featured in shows. But what is rather unexpected about the Tufts Art Gallery is the interdisciplinary nature of these academic ties. Humanities classes are not the only ones that consider exhibitions to be a useful resource.
This particular exhibition has been great to make connections with climate change environmental studies [courses] and with earth and ocean sciences ... [and] with an environmental chemistry course, Schlegel said.
Although the connections to science or other fields of study might not be the most obvious, Schlegel views them as an important part of the gallerys role in the Tufts community.
This is all about cultivating relationships with these faculty ... knowing what courses they tend to teach, said Schlegel. The tricky part is developing the exhibition idea ... without necessarily knowing yet what those faculty will be teaching when that exhibition is on view, so our timelines are a little out of synch.
The gallery is committed to this interdisciplinary approach to visual art because of what Schlegel sees as its significant educational boon.
Theres also an incredible educational power that art can play, said Schlegel. I think forming ... a different knowledge about the world through vision and becoming more informed and a better critical thinker by understanding that images convey meaning that they are coded [is important]. There are skills that can be taught and learned in deciphering these meanings.12
