Ever wanted to curate an exhibition? Work side-by-side with a museum professional to develop a program or educational resource? Dig deep into a collection of art and artifacts? Or just have fun participating in the local cultural scene? Museums and society students have many opportunities like these, both in the classroom and outside of it.
In 2011, a $500,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation recognized the Program in Museums and Society for its unique offerings with a grant that to support museum-based projects with our campus museums and with partner institutions in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. This grant was renewed in 2013 as part of a larger program in support of the arts and humanities at Hopkins and funded more than a dozen collaborative projects between 2013 and 2017 at institutions as diverse as the Baltimore Museum of Art, Jewish Museum of Maryland, Maryland Zoo, Baltimore Museum of Industry, JHU Archaeology Museum and others. Many smaller grants in pedagogy, the arts, and practical ethics continue to launch innovative digital projects, art installations and archives.
Since 2017 the program has offered an annual course in partnership with the Baltimore Museum of Art as part of their ongoing collaboration with that museum. In 2021 a collaboration with JHU’s Inheritance Baltimore project launched ongoing community-based work with stewards of Baltimore’s Black cemeteries.
See below for a list of recent projects, or check this list of pre-2015 projects.
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Shriver Hall Murals
In 1939, Johns Hopkins alumnus Alfred Jenkins Shriver died, leaving funds for a lecture hall to be decorated with a set of murals. Shriver’s directives for the murals were very precise and required significant help from the university registrar, Irene Davis,…
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The Literary Archive Project
The Literary Archive blog is the product of Gabrielle Dean’s teaching in Museums and Society and English. In the spring 2015 version of the class, student contributors focused on three American modernist prose writers with roots in Baltimore: Dashiell Hammett,…
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JUBILEE: Roman Catholic Pilgrimage Culture in Papal Rome, 1500 – 1675
Senior, and Museums & Society student, Taylor Alessio curated, “JUBILEE: Roman Catholic Pilgrimage Culture in Papal Rome, 1500 – 1675,” a rare book exhibition featuring beautifully illustrated books from the Italian Renaissance.” Taylor will be giving a talk about the…
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Museums and Social Responsibility
During the Spring 2016 course AS.389.375, students explored the ways in which museums engage with local communities and asked: Do museums have a social responsibility? What roles should they play in and with their communities? Should they be agents of…
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An Ever Green Evening
A set of silver spoons, a Walloon sword, and a Japanese katana are among a collection of historical objects recently returned to Evergreen Museum & Library. Curated and researched for the first time by student history detectives from Johns Hopkins…
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Death of History: Witnessing Heritage Destruction in Syria and Iraq
Cultural heritage is the physical manifestation of a people’s history and forms a significant part of their identity. Unfortunately, the destruction of that heritage has become an ongoing part of the conflict in Syria and Iraq. With the rise of…
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Conversations with the Carrolls
Conversations with the Carrolls, a student-run living history performance at the Homewood Museum, tells the story of the entangled lives of the Carroll family and the enslaved men, women and children who labored for them in the 1800s. Performance dates and…
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GhostFood
Along with staff of The Contemporary, a nomadic museum in Baltimore, students in this fall’s GhostFoodcourse brought the futuristic food truck of Brooklyn-based artists Miriam Simun to campus on Monday, October 5. Around 100 students explored the “post-extinction taste experiences”…
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Frida Kahlo’s Indigenous Identity
Ancient objects that appear in Frida Kahlo’s (1907-1954) paintings have rarely been exhibited alongside her work. Yet, by her own account, ancient art was instrumental in her efforts to define herself and her national identity. M&S student Alison Tretter’s Capstone…