Curatorial Teaching and Research

Art history research projects and courses involving exhibitions, collections, and archival research on campus often require specialized support for archiving and teaching. This guide outlines ways curators, conservators, staff members, instructors, and students can collaborate with the VRC to support their curatorial work. 

The following VRC collections, services, and resources were established in and are sustained by collaboration with key campus collections and curatorial colleagues across campus the Smart Museum of Art, Neubauer Collegium, Renaissance Society, Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, Booth Art Collection, the Hyde Park Art Center, Arts & Public Life, the University of Chicago Library, the Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, and more—we are grateful for their expertise and generosity. While we invite collaborations from all UChicago instructors and campus colleagues, the VRC will prioritize those engaged in research and teaching related to campus collections.

Through our Imaging Services, the VRC can digitize images of artworks from published sources or digitally source images from vendors and archival collections and add these images to the appropriate LUNA collection. All of this can be done at no cost to the requestor. This can be utilized via the following: 

• Specific image requests from a curator, instructor, collections staff, intern, or research assistant to digitize images or digitally source them for inclusion in LUNA.
• We can also field research-based collection development requests, such as precedent studies or contextual groups of images of artworks in a particular style or by a particular artist.

We have several examples of existing image collections related to curatorial projects within the digital LUNA Art History Department Collection to explore:

• Contextual images for Orianna’s Transpacific research
• Contextual images for Allure of Matter
• Non-Concrete Traffic Vostell 
• Monochrome/abstract art research

Additionally, the VRC collaborates with staff colleagues from several campus museums and arts spaces to select archival materials from past exhibitions digitized and add to the appropriate collection(s). VRC staff can share LUNA images and data for use in other campus collections systems and/or for personal archiving purposes.

Additionally, we can lend cameras to curators/instructors/RAs to take photographs of exhibitions and objects in storage while on research trips. The VRC can add external colleagues to LUNA for collaboration or events such as study days or symposia.

Curator-instructors are invited to borrow items from the Joel Snyder Materials Collection (JSMC) for use in class sessions or for short-term loan for installations through CWAC Exhibitions or other campus locations.

Additionally, the VRC welcomes curators, instructors, and their students to propose acquisitions of new objects, materials, and/or tools relevant to the exhibition and course by curator/instructor or student request. We also invite proposed donations of items purchased for the exhibition or related satellite installations after the exhibit or course concludes.

With prior approval from campus collections staff, the VRC can lend instructors classroom conservation equipment from the Joel Snyder Materials Collection for student research, examination, and teaching in collection spaces on campus.

VRC staff can provide skills-based workshops and instructional sessions for students in courses based on curatorial research and/or exhibitions, including research skills, digital exhibitions, project management tools, and archival practices. 

Some curator-instructors structure a course assignment on conducting image research and contributing the images and information about them to the VRC for inclusion in LUNA. We can provide examples of how to structure this in your syllabus and have your students collaborate with the VRC!

If you are working with or working as a research assistant (RA) or an intern on a curatorial project, the VRC offers customizable training and support. RAs are invited to place image digitization requests or digital image sourcing requests. In addition, the VRC can advise on tools, systems, and workflows for collaboration. For a full description of how the VRC can support RAs and interns, please review our Research Support page or reach out to visualresources@uchicago.edu to get started.

In collaboration with campus collections staff and colleagues at the Library and Special Collections, the VRC may be able to help you create a digital image archive of various aspects  of your exhibition and/or curatorial research and teaching, especially for campus exhibitions and courses. For example: 

• VRC can archive original photo and video documentation from campus arts spaces and their photographers to LUNA, where it may be deemed useful for future projects or research and as capacity allows
• VRC staff can take photo and video documentation of the exhibition installation process and installation views for inclusion in LUNA as time permits. Alternatively, we can lend cameras to faculty, instructors, campus collections staff, interns, and research assistants for the same purpose.
  • VRC staff will share all images produced with relevant campus collections staff colleagues for their purposes as well as for individual instructor/curator. 
• Unfortunately, video/audio editing is limited to what VRC staff or RAs can confidently produce with current knowledge, time, and equipment. For example, VRC can do time-lapse video of installations or simple walk-throughs. However, the VRC cannot meet artists’ studio standards or do advanced audio and video capture and editing. 

VRC staff can provide baseline support for recording remote events or hybrid events hosted in CWAC 157 utilizing the room’s built in cameras and microphones. For more advanced event videography, we encourage you to discuss with AVS, UChicago Creative, or their recommended vendors. For more information, or to reserve CWAC 157 for an event, please write to Taiah Wilson, Event and Communications Assistant, Department of Art History.