How can we enjoy physical spaces when we’re unable to visit them in person?
The Lyman Conservatory and Smith College Museum of Art have been closed to the public since March 2020 because of COVID precautions. For my Museum Studies capstone project, I wanted to make a way to visit Lyman virtually, creating an immersive experience where visitors could move and look around the space at their own pace.
What happens if we look at plants in the same way that we look at art?
By juxtaposing works from the Smith College Museum of Art collection with the plants that inspired them, I hope to raise new ways of looking closely at the world. Art museums and conservatories are both museums, but we experience and interpret them very differently. I hope this exhibition inspires you to notice the details and intention behind every paintbrush stroke and shape of a leaf that you encounter within Virtual Lyman.
Land acknowledgment
As we engage with museums and conservatories, whose historic collection practices perpetuate and drive colonialism, it’s especially important to acknowledge the presence and sovereignty of the indigenous people and land among us.
I acknowledge that Lyman Conservatory, the Smith College Botanic Gardens, and the Smith College Museum of Art are built within the ancestral lands of the Nonotuck peoples. I also recognize our present-day neighboring indigenous nations: the Nipmuc and the Wampanoag to the East, the Mohegan, Pequot, and Narragansett to the South, the Mohican and the Mohawk to the West, and the Abenaki to the North. Finally, I acknowledge and celebrate the presence of indigenous peoples among us today.
This land acknowledgment was adapted from Smith College’s land acknowledgment statement.
Thank you!
I’m so grateful for the support of MUX 300 co-teachers Jessica and Charlene for all their help throughout this project, along with my entire class. You guys rock!
Sarah, Elaine, Gaby, Jimmy, Dan, and all of the other folks at the Smith College Botanic Gardens for their patience and assistance during all the hours I spent in Lyman this semester.
Travis, Mario, and Dan for their technical assistance and WordPress mastery.
Nimisha, Esther, and Charlotte for their help with research.
And last but not least, my loving friends and family, especially my chief UX tester Louisa.