Mellon Foundation Grant to the Zimmerli Art Museum

The museum’s Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Endowment Fund, established in 2002, supports experiential learning at the Zimmerli across the museum’s areas of collecting through innovative curriculum connections, special programs, and collaborations with faculty, staff, and students.  The most recent award in 2012 funds two graduate exhibition seminars organized with faculty in the Department of Art History.

During the next five years, this grant funds two graduate seminars in art history (with two e-books featuring research by the seminar students), two publications, two major exhibitions, two scholarly symposia and, each year during the grant cycle, two full-time summer internships for graduate students in the Department of Art History at Rutgers.

The first of these exhibition seminars, Not About Face: Identity and Appearance Past and Present, was co-taught in the spring of 2012 by Professor Susan Sidlauskas, Department of Art History, and Donna Gustafson, Andrew W. Mellon Liaison for Academic Programs and Curator at the Zimmerli.  A related e-book is available, and an exhibition called Striking Resemblance: The Changing Art of Portraiture, will open in January 2014.  The second graduate level exhibition seminar focusing on the Zimmerli’s photography collection will be a collaboration between Professor Andres Zervigon, Department of Art History and Donna Gustafson.  The seminar will be offered through the department in the fall of 2014, leading to a major exhibition, seminar and symposium.

The first exhibition seminar, Not About Face, focused on the subject of portraiture.  Students from the seminar participated in the research and planning of a future exhibition drawn from the museum’s collection, augmented by loans from public and private collections, top open in January 2014.  Paintings conservator Rustin Levinson Art Conservation Associates, and framer Evan Brownstein, of B. Beamesderfer Gallery, visited the class as guest lecturers to provide expert knowledge on preparation of objects for proper care and display.  Students also traveled to visit photographer Gary Schneider, whose portrait work over several decades has added new interest to the tradition of the photographic portrait. 

On May 2, 2012, the Museum and the Department of Art History hosted “De-Facing the Portrait: Graduate Student Colloquium” with guest speaker Sylvia Yount, Chief Curator and Louise B. and J. Harwood Cochrane Curator of American Art, Virginia Museum of Art.  Respondents included Gary Schneider, photographer and faculty member, Mason Gross School of the Arts; Charletta Ayers, ME, MPH, Associate Professor and Director, General OB/GYN, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Services, RWJMS; Thomas V. Papathomas, Busch Campus Dean, Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Director of the Laboratory of Vision Research; and Sylvia Yount.

Not About Face: Identity and Representation, Past and Present

Striking Resemblance: The Changing Art of Portraiture

 Numerous students have completed internships at prominent museums. Many have gone on to have successful careers as curators in museums around the country. A select few of our countless successful graduates are listed here, along with their thoughts on the value of the Certificate program.

Current Students

Christina Weyl

Past Internships

Metropolitan Museum of Art (Spring 2011)
New-York Historical Society (Summer-Fall 2010)
Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers (Fall 2009-Spring 2010)

"When applying to graduate schools, I was drawn to the curatorial certificate program at Rutgers as a way to supplement my PhD. The introductory museum training course provided behind-the-scenes looks at several museum careers. The three internships allowed me to keep active in the job market while in grad school."

Eveline Baseggio

Past Internships

The Frick Collection, Department of European Painting and Sculpture (Fall 2009-Spring 2010)
The Morgan Library and Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings (Fall 2008-Spring 2009)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Department of Prints and Drawings (Summer-Fall 2008)

 "The Curatorial Studies Certificate has been an invaluable tool for my professional and personal growth. This program gave me the necessary training to work in the curatorial field and the amazing opportunity to learn from established curators in the most prestigious museums in New York. The experience that I gained has been fundamental in preparing me for the job market and helping me to mature as a scholar."

Former Students

Dr. Sharon Matt Atkins

Managing Curator of Exhibitions, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY

“The Curatorial Studies program at Rutgers provided me with invaluable resources and training at an early stage in my career. Alongside rigorous art history seminars, it offers a unique combination of coursework introducing critical issues in the field paired with hands-on training via museum internships. Especially in today’s job market, practical experience that supplements an art history degree is an absolute must for pursuing a curatorial career.”

Dr. Mary M. Tinti

Associate Curator at the Fitchburg Museum, Fitchburg, MA

"The Certificate Program in Curatorial Studies provided a connection-rich, hands-on introduction to prestigious area museums and allowed me to learn from seasoned curators at those institutions. It also gave me some much needed, behind-the-scenes insight into the philosophy of museums and the totality of creating an exhibition. As an art historian who loves all aspects of the discipline - research, writing, teaching, and curating - I'm so grateful to the faculty at Rutgers for designing a graduate program that exposed me to a multitude of career paths. That kind of flexibility was particularly important for me (a student who didn't know exactly which path to choose), better prepared me for the job market, and absolutely made me the well-rounded scholar and curator I am today."

Tracy Fitzpatrick

Chief Curator, Neuberger Museum of Art
Associate Professor, Purchase College, SUNY



"The Rutgers University program is an exceptional opportunity for aspiring art historians and curators. It provided me with the opportunity to combine theory and practice into a unique learning experience that challenged me, engaged me, and prepared me for my work as a chief curator and as a teacher. It gave me the tools to, not only make exhibitions and work with collections, but also to combine my curatorial work with curricular initiatives."

Selected Exhibition Seminars

 This is a list of selected exhibition seminars in which students have participated in the past:

Not About Face: Identity and Representation, Past and Present
Instructors: Donna Gustafson and Dr. Susan Sidlauskas
Accompanied by an eBook, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers, 2012

Passion in Venice: The Man of Sorrows from Crivelli to Tintoretto 

Instructor: Dr. Catherine Puglisi
2009

Pop Art and After: Prints + Popular Culture
Instructors: Marilyn Symmes and Dr. Joan Marter
Zimmerli Art Museum, 2008

Women and Abstract Expressionism: 1945-1959
Organized at Baruch College and traveled to Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
1998
Winner, "Best Exhibition" Award from the International Association of Art Critics

Rutgers University, New Brunswick Campus 

Strategically located on the Northeast Corridor between New York City and Philadelphia, Rutgers University’s Art History Department offers both M.A. and Ph.D. students an exceptional combination of an outstanding faculty, rigorous, imaginative scholarship, innovative critical approaches, a spectrum of cross-disciplinary programs, and professional opportunities.

Faculty

Our distinguished faculty offers an intellectually rigorous and theoretically sophisticated program of study.  The faculty comprises eleven full-time members whose research interests and teaching span Europe, Asia, North America, and the Middle East.  

Global Research and Inclusivity

The increasingly global and interdisciplinary scope of the department has fostered new collaborative research in fields such as gender and women’s studies, visual culture, and the history of science and medicine.  Many faculty and students have been actively involved with the vital research institutes and programs within Rutgers.

Our department is committed to working closely with graduate students coming from any background to develop their own voice in their research. We have a strong commitment to cultivating an equitable, affirming, and inclusive graduate learning and research environment to enable students to thrive regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender identity, citizenship status, religion, age, relationship status, socioeconomic status, nationality, and sexual orientation.

Consortium Connections

Taking full advantage of the great museums, galleries and academic institutions in the northeast, our students benefit from internships in the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia area and from a consortium of art history programs that allows our PhD students to register for a limited number of graduate courses at Columbia University, Fordham University, The Graduate Center at CUNY, the Institute of Fine Arts, The New School, New York University, SUNY at Stony Brook, Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Interdisciplinary Research Centers And Interdepartmental Collaborations

Faculty and graduate students in the department have been actively involved with interdisciplinary centers, including the Center for Cultural Analysis, the British Studies Center, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the Institute for Research on Women, the Center for Historical Analysis, and the Global Asias Initiative.

They have been particularly active in facilitating the ongoing success of The Developing Room, a working group sponsored through the Center for Cultural Analysis, that has brought together scholars at Rutgers and from elsewhere whose research and teaching engages with the histories, theories, and practices of photography.

Degrees and Certificate Programs

• Ph.D. in Art History
• M.A. Degree in Art History with three distinct tracks 
  • Cultural Heritage and Preservation Studies
  • Curatorial Studies
  • Art History 
• JD/M.A. Dual Degree (concentration in Cultural Heritage and Preservation Studies)
• Certificate Programs:  
• • • Curatorial Studies Certificate
• B.A./M.A. Program in Curatorial Studies (4+1)

Over its forty-four year history as the Rutgers Art History Department, the graduate program has awarded over seventy-five Doctoral and about one hundred and fifty Master’s degrees. For the past two decades, many students have also pursued a certificate in Curatorial Studies, Historic Preservation and can now also obtain an Architectural Studies Certificate.

Funding Opportunities

Students admitted into the Ph D. program usually are awarded a funding package which includes a combination of fellowships and teaching assistantships. Additional research assistantships may be available through the Norton Dodge Collection of Soviet Non-Conformist Art. Both the department and the graduate school also provide opportunities to apply for additional funding to support conference travel, summer research, and dissertation completion.  Please note that a student fee will be charged to your account in the fall. This fee is approx. $1,500.  If you are awarded a fellowship or TAship, you might not receive your first paycheck until the third week of September.  

Our doctoral students have been very successful in securing external grant and foundation funding for their dissertation travel, research, and writing. A selection of the honors recently awarded includes: 

• Two different Kress Institutional Fellowships for study at the Hertziana Library in Rome
• Fulbright Fellowships to Austria, Estonia, Germany, Italy, and Moscow
• The Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD)
• The  INHA (Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art)
• Residential fellowships at the Smithsonian Institution
• Residential fellowships at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Washington DC 

We are unfortunately unable to promise financial support for M.A. students.

The School of Arts and Sciences requires that PhD-track students complete the degree in seven years.  Generally, the School of Arts and Sciences does not allow for an 8th year of study, except in circumstances of medical or family emergency. 

Art History Graduate Student Association (AHSGO)

The Art History Graduate Student Association (AHSGO) also offer students many opportunities to engage and organize a wide range of graduate student symposia, as well as international conferences. The Art History Graduate Student Organization arranges a Distinguished Speakers Series each year, complemented by the annual Sydney Jacobs Lecture in American Art and the newly inaugurated Edwin L. Weisl Lecture in Early Modern Art and Architecture.

Rutgers Art Review

The Rutgers Art Review is the oldest journal of graduate scholarship in Art History in the country. It is published annually and produced entirely by graduate students, Program faculty and students have repeatedly won competitive awards from the School of Graduate Studies, as well as national and international awards, for distinction in both teaching and research. 

Rutgers Art Library

Graduate students make frequent use of the Rutgers Art Library, which is located conveniently next to the department's main office in historic Voorhees Hall. The Art Library not only supports research and instructional needs, but also has been an active partner in co-sponsoring cultural events, lectures and exhibitions. The Art Library is closed in the summer. 

Zimmerli Museum

Program faculty and students closely collaborate with The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Museum on exhibitions and research. 

Alumni/Alumnae

Many alumni/ae currently hold academic and/or curatorial appointments at distinguished institutions, among them Smith College, Boston College, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Morgan Library.