The Michigan Daily I michigandailycom I Thursday, February 4, 2010 CCURRICULUMS weekend essentials Feb. 4to Feb. 7 ON DISPLAY "Chasing Shadows" is South African pho- tojournalist Santu Mofokeng's latest exhibit. This photo- graphic series of eerie landscapes seeks to explore the themes of ownership, loss and spirituality and, accord- ing to the Institute for the Humanities's web- site, meditate on "the profound absurdity of living." "Chasing Shad- ows" opens tomorrow and is housed at 202 South Thayer Street, Room 1010. The exhibit is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. ON DVD You've heard the rave reviews. Now it has been nominated for nine Oscars, includ- ing Best Picture. Do yourself a favor and experience "The Hurt Locker," available on DVD and Blu-ray. This story of soldiers defus- ing bombs in Iraq is a masterpiece - an expertly directed character study with more thrills than "Ava- tar" (and made with 1/33 of its budget). 4 ., 0111 _, _, , , . By Leah Burgin Daily Fine Arts Editor "Change, resilience, adap ity and creativity." These ar ideas expressed in the geometri elegant ideogram called nkyin originating from the Akhan p of sub-Saharan Africa, accordi the University of Michigan Mu, Studies Program website. The bol depicts a meandering line winds horizontally toward the icon's top edge, suddenly splits into five short lines that beg to ex like tributaries past the character's boundaries. - Generally translated to mean "twistings," the inkyin marking has traveled from Ghana and d'Ivoire to Ann Arbor via Professor of Art Histori Afroamerican and African Studies Ray Silver who has worked with the Akhan people for 30 ye Silverman, who is also the director of the Un sity of Michigan Museum Studies Program, chose inkyin for the UMMSP's logo because he believe Akhan ideogram embodies the philosophy of the gram, which includes the Rackham School of Gi ate Studies certificate program in Museum St and the brand new undergraduate minor. "We don't want to create a discipline of Mu Studies," Silverman said. "We want to create an space where a lot of different disciplines can me discuss a whole range of issues related to muse but also issues that have relevance to other cul contexts." MAKING OF THE MINOR The Museum Studies Minor, launched last se ter, is a direct result of the graduate certificate gram's success. Since its creation in 2003, the gra certificate program has garnered great interest as undergraduates. "It was largely the result of a lot of undergrad coming to me and saying, 'Hey it's really nice tha have a graduate program in Museum Studies, but about us?"' Silverman said. "(Silverman) and I would each be approache undergraduate students over the course of a term would want to know where the (museum) co were for undergraduates, and we could point th courses in different departments, but there wasn one structured curriculum in place for underg added Associate Director of UMMSP Brad Taylor Like the graduate certificate program, the minor consists of 18 credits, and it's structured ar the same general curriculum, including a focu museums as institutions, the objects and collec tabil- within museums and how museums interact with man, the field includes not only history and art muse- e the society. Both programs are intended to promote muse- ums, but other institutions, like theme parks, zoos, ically um literacy and complement other fields of study, not arboreta and casinos, that compete for the public's lei- kyin, to act as a vocational track for those interested in a sure time and seek to "design an experience." eople museum career. "We were ambitious," added Florusbosch. "We had ng to "It's not that we're preparing students for a career weekly readings (and) a weekly film that we thought seum in museums, it's that we're preparing students to think would be a nice change of pace. Then we had outside sym- critically about museums, about their role in society, events that people needed to attend on their own. And that about how they work, how they function," Silverman then of course we had lecture and discussion, which is then said. normal. And then they had a digital curation program. pand "We don't offer classes on how to become a cura- And that's six different kinds of learning experiences. tor or how to organize collections," Taylor added. "For There was a lot of differentkinds of things that people nky- those students who want that training, it's available had to do." Cote out there, but we've made an intentional decision to In addition to these class components listed above, y and offer something different. And while it's really too students were given the opportunity to listen to guest man, early to tell in the undergraduate program, the gradu- speakers from different areas within the museum ars. ate program has really set itself apart from other pro- field. liver- grams in the field by taking that approach." "One of my favorites was the director of the Detroit nky- Out of the 70 students who took the minor's intro- Institute of Arts, who spoke about the issues he faced s the ductory course last semester, 30 have already declared in trying to make the DIA more open to people who pro- the minor. Of these students, Silverman said he thinks didn't have a background in art," said LSA senior Katie radu- "most are interested in pursuing museum careers." Munn. udies However, according to Rackham student Jolande Munn and her classmates in Museums 301 didn't Henrike Florusbosch and graduate student instructor just listen to curators and museum directors. They seum for Museums 301, there was a lot of diversity among were also expected to create their own "digital cura- open the minor's first crop of students. tion" projects. Assigned on the first day of class, the eet to "There were students who had always known that individual, web-based exhibits were to be composed ums, they wanted to work in museums (and) people that of photographed objects framed within a personal tural really didn't know that there was really a course on story. At the end of the term, the class had a "gallery museums," she said. "There was a whole range of peo- opening" where students could browse their peers' ple, and that's what we were hoping (for)." exhibits, which covered topics ranging from South Students who took the introductory course includ- Dakota to Boy Scouts to Michigan game day culture. ed those from the expected areas of interest within the Through the digital curation project, students mes- College of LSA (namely history, art history, anthropol- learned to appreciate the challenge of website build- pro- ogy and classical studies), but also from the School of ing and archive creation. According to LSA junior duate Art & Design, the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, Nick Malzahn, "putting (the exhibit) online was half mong the Ross School of Business and the College of Engi- the battle." neering. According to Florusbosch, this mishmash of Students also spoke highly of the minor's manda- uates students created a welcoming interdisciplinary com- tory internship requirement. t you munity. Teplyn Fournier, an LSA senior, has two intern- what Because there were 20 differentconcentrations rep- ships this semester, including one at the University's resented, the course faced a unique difficulty. Taylor Map Library. As part of her internship, Fournier works ed by remarked that "it makes it a bit of a challenge to figure with several other students to curate a show about the who out how to respond to such broad disciplinary bases." cohesiveness of the Mediterranean region. urses But he happily concluded that, to his surprise, "one "I'm not just learning about something I love, but em to of the students who did the best at the end of the term I'm having my mind blown by some of the things we 't any was an engineering student." learn about what's going on in museums and behind rad," the scenes,"she said. r. A HOLISTIC APPROACH Munn similarly experienced the correlation new between theory and application in her internship at ound Luckily, the minor is able to handle diverse inter- the University of Michigan Museum of Art. is on ests, as the curriculum was intended to mirror the "We talked about museum's role in society, and ions broadness of the museum field. According to Silver- See MUSEUM STUDIES, Page 3B FILM "Secret Museums," a documentary by Peter Woditsch, delves into erotic art censorship, examining both the public and private buildings where the medium is stored. It features sit-down interviews with collec- tors and aficionados, who discuss the rea- sons behind collecting. The free film screening will take place tonight at 7 p.m. at the Helmut Stern Auditorium. CONCERT Politics got you down? Don't give up yet, for the Hip Hop Con- gress's 6th Annual Midwest Hip Hop Summit brings its beat to the League Ball- room. See concerts by artists including M1 of Dead Prez and Black Milk on Friday and a conference on Saturday cover- ing gender identity, sexual orientation and social justice in the genre. Doors open at 7 p.m. on Friday. Tickets are $10 and available at MUTO. DESIGN BY: CARLY GRAFSTEIN & MAYA FRIEDMAN