Mellon Undergraduate Curatorial Fellowship Program: Lessons Learned View Digital Media

Colloquium
Hilary Walter,  Kelley Magill Rosales,  Rachel Joy Echiverri Rowland,  Julia Forbes,  Victoria Fletcher  

How can organizations and the next generation of thinkers partner to solve the inclusivity issues that art museums face? In 2013, the Mellon Foundation launched a program to support six museums across the U.S. to diversify pathways to curatorial careers in art museums by hosting undergraduates for two-year paid curatorial fellowships. But since that time, what has really changed? What has the impact of the program been for our students and our museums? If museums still acknowledge that their collections, staff, board, and programming are not reflective of the communities they serve, what are the lessons-learned and new opportunities that our present moment brings to advance the goals of making museums more diverse? Please join the coordinators of the Mellon Undergraduate Curatorial Fellowship (MUCF) program for a colloquium to hear about lessons learned from managing the program and how they believe this work can inform future efforts in museums. Paper one- ‘Introduction to the MUCF Program: Recruitment, Outreach, and the Summer Academy’, Michele Valentine. Paper two- ‘Creating a Culture of Mentorship: Roles and Responsibilities of MUCF fellows/mentors/coordinators’, Rachel Joy Echiverri Rowland. Paper three- ‘MUCF curriculum and supporting Fellows’ knowledge to change the museum’s collection’, Faron Manuel. Paper four- ‘Hosting Undergraduate Fellows: Awareness of Staff Capacity and Internal Culture’, Victoria Fletcher. Paper five- ‘Networking and museum partnerships, the fellowship as a catalyst for relationship building’ -Kelley Magill Rosales. Paper six- ‘Where are they now- MUCF Alumni and their continuation in the field’, Hilary Walter.