Local University Students Curate the Museum
Pilot Programs Lets Students Get Firsthand Experience Working with Cutting-Edge Contemporary Artists and Curators at the Riverside Art Museum

Inaugural Opening of the Riverside Art Museum’s Student Curatorial Council Program, In Response to You Are Breathing In It! Alternative Art Practices
On View from August 9th – September 26th, 2012
For more information, visit www.riversideartmuseum.org/YABII

Riverside CA – In conjunction with RAM’s groundbreaking summer exhibition, You Are Breathing In It! Alternative Art Practices, the Riverside Art Museum proudly announces the launch of the Riverside Art Museum’s Student Curatorial Council (RAMSCC) pilot program. RAMSCC has given a group of four locally-based students, ranging from undergraduates to Ph.D. candidates, a firsthand experience working with cutting edge contemporary artists and curators. The students have worked alongside RAM staff and You Are Breathing In It! artists and curator Karla Diaz to plan, execute, and write about their related exhibition programming component, which collectively occupy special featured areas of the museum reserved for this project. Students were given various options to program the RAMSCC exhibition spaces in response and in relation to the current exhibition. The students’ projects include: a curatorial presentation of a selected artist’s work in relation to the exhibition, a curatorial presentation of the artist-curator’s own artwork in response to the exhibition, and documentation of / response to a specific exhibition-related workshop that took place.

“This project represents an important step for RAM to better engage our region’s university students in a meaningful way,” says Drew Oberjuerge, RAM Executive Director. “Not only is our summer exhibition geared towards students, we have created spaces for them to reflect on and expand our programming. We hope that this experience is an important stepping stone in their careers as artists, curators, and art critics. We look forward to continuing this type of project to showcase the talent and intellect of students like these.”

The participants worked closely alongside RAM staff to develop and adapt their ideas to function as exhibitions with an educational component. The curators gained firsthand experience writing and editing didactic text, working within a limited budget, coordinating loan forms and contracts, and helping with exhibit installation. The participating curators include: Michaeline Anderson, a Cal State San Bernandino graduate currently completing her Masters in Art History at UCR; Lydia Young Ha Kim, a recent graduate of California Baptist University who will enter the Claremont Graduate University in the fall for Museum Studies; Carolyn Schutten, currently completing her Ph.D. in Public History at UCR; and Zaid Yousef, currently completing his Bachelors at UCR in Studio Art and Art History. “Working on the RAMSCC has been an intellectual adventure!” says Yousef. “This exhibition in particular provokes an intellectual responsibility to articulate the fundamental core of our practice. The culmination of these alternative practices into one exhibition remains incredibly exciting to view and partake in.”

The exhibition includes documentary photos of the Mobile Mural Lab youth workshop held during the exhibit’s opening reception (curated by Lydia Young Ha Kim), abstract enamel paintings by artist-curator Zaid Yousef, the polaroid photographs of Inland Empire-native photographer Theodore DeHart (curated by Michaeline Anderson), and a sound installation of artist Luz María Sánchez’s 2487 (curated by Carolyn Schutten). Michaeline Anderson says of DeHart’s phototgraphs, “Representations of landscapes have changed dramatically in the past 60 years. We cannot afford to only look at the beautiful, natural elements in the landscape around us. Instead we must see and understand how we have changed and become part of the landscape. In this exhibition I wanted to explore different ways of looking at the landscape and pause to think what it has become.” Luz María Sánchez’s 2487 was originally commissioned by Artspace San Antonio as part of the International Artist-in-Residence program, New Works: 06.2, curated by Yuko Hasegawa, Chief Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan. For more information on this project, please visit: www.diaspora2487.org.

“RAM is thrilled to be able to offer these young curators an opportunity like this,” says Kathryn Poindexter, Curator and coordinator of the RAMSCC program. “We are incredibly impressed with the depth and variation of thoughtful artistic responses that the students have produced to accompany this exhibit. So many students exploring the arts are facing a lot of obstacles in this economy, so it was very empowering for them to see their ideas and passions realized within a real-life art institution.”

The RAMSCC artwork will be on view in RAM’s alcove hallway, atrium exhibition wall, glass cases, and upstairs mezzanine hallway through September 26th. The students will speak about their work and their process during a panel discussion and closing reception for the You Are Breathing In It! exhibition on September 21st from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. To RSVP please call 951-684-7111 or e-mail Exhibit Liaison Kathryn Poindexter at: ramexhibitions@riversideartmuseum.org.

For more information about the You Are Breathing In It! Alternative Art Practices exhibition and related programming, visit www.riversideartmuseum.org/YABII.

RAM relies on the generosity of members and donors to support its exhibitions, education programs, and special events. A 50-plus-year-old, private, non-profit cultural arts institution housed in a National Historic 1929 building designed by Hearst Castle architect Julia Morgan, the museum welcomes over 50,000 visitors a year. The museum is open Tuesday – Saturday, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. and Sunday, 12:00 noon – 4:00 p.m. For information on exhibits, events, classes, memberships, or sponsorship opportunities, visit www.RiversideArtMuseum.org. Find us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/riversideartmuseum) and Twitter (RAMRiverside).