Materials in Context: Experiential Learning in Art History--A Collection Curator's Perspective

The Historic Materials Collection at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design provides students with a deeper understanding of the materiality of historic works of art, and of the processes by which these historic art works were made.

Working in close collaboration with foundation (first-year) art history faculty, the collection curator embeds the introduction of specimens, tools, and materials during, or in conjunction with, related lectures and class presentations, providing a variety of items for direct student experience using all of their senses – especially touch – along with close visual inspection.

For undergraduate students experiencing their first college-level lecture course (often taught in a single weekly class meeting totaling 150 minutes), the brief presentation of tangible objects in an open setting provides a welcome shift in learning mode, while also helping these students to connect their study of art history as a purely intellectual discipline, based primarily on the study of texts and photographic reproductions, with their own experiences of art-making in their studio practice.