Adela Goldsmith – Smith College ’19, is an Art History major and a Museums Concentrator hoping to specialize in curatorial work. They collaborated with Beryl Ford SC ’17 on the design of the layout of the paintings portion of the exhibition. They will be spending the first half of their junior year working at the Smithsonian American History Museum with the goal of learning more about how to produce effective and accessible interpretive materials.
Amanda Click – Smith College ’17, is a Studio Art major with a focus in installation and digital media, and a personal interest in alternative education. Amanda oversaw and helped write the verbal descriptions that accompany each image on the website to maximize accessibility, and designed the map for the exhibition.
Alyina Zaidi –Mount Holyoke College ’17, is a Physics major and Art Studio minor. She is extremely passionate about Islamic Art, especially Persian and Mughal miniatures, and hopes to pursue this interest in graduate school. She helped lead the painting team and write the main wall label. Uncovering information about the paintings has been most thrilling!
Annie Titan – Smith College ’20, is an intended Art History major and Museums Concentrator. She kept the exhibition organized by keeping track of each painting and ceramic object, and updating the “tombstone” labels through several drafts to create a final checklist.
Beryl Briane Ford – Smith College ’17, is an Art History major and Museums Concentrator. She was responsible for planning the layout and design of the exhibition with Adela Goldsmith SC ’19. When she’s not collaboratively curating, she enjoys going to art museums and looks forward to pursuing a Master’s in Arts Administration at Columbia University’s Teachers College in the fall.
Madison Agresti – Smith College ’19, is a Government major and Arabic minor. Madison is responsible for creating the layout design of the ceramic objects. She has become interested in studying art from the Middle East during her time at Smith and has deeply enjoyed working on this exhibition. She will be studying abroad in Amman, Jordan during her junior year, hoping to gain first-hand experience about Middle Eastern art and culture.
Mingxuan Kerry Chia – Smith College ’17, is a Geology and Art History double major who hopes to specialize in Islamic art. Studying 900-year old Persian ceramics was right up her alley, where she found bridges between both her majors and interests. She helped lead the ceramics team in organizing, compiling and curating this exhibit, and is ecstatic that she can conclude her Smith career with such a cool project!
Mollie Wohlforth – Mount Holyoke College ’19, is an Art History major and Religion minor, pursuing a certificate in Public History, Archives, and Museum Studies. In addition to writing her label, she designed and compiled the exhibition’s accompanying website. She was thrilled to work on such a yet untouched collection and was constantly amazed by the treasures it held.
Nicole Bearden – Smith College, AC ’19, is an Art History major, and a Museums Concentrator. Having become engrossed in the field of “Islamic” art, after a class with Professor Seggerman in Fall 2016, she was thrilled to participate in the research and organization of this exhibition. In addition to writing her own label for the work, “Night Journey of the Prophet Muhammad,” and the description of the “Paintings” page, she was also the proofreader for other exhibition labels.
Ryleigh Swanson – Smith College ’19, is an American Studies and Art History double major. She joined the class for the opportunity to work hands-on with art and exhibition. This class did not disappoint! For this project, she worked as a co-leader of the ceramics group and a co-author of the overall wall label for the exhibition.
Vivian Myron – Northampton High School ’17, worked on the ceramics team focusing on designing the display for ceramics in the collection. She is very grateful for the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing project and loved learning about the histories of the objects in the Elinor Lander Horwitz collection.