Six student-curated exhibits on topics from 18th century gardening to ballet and baseball cards are on display at the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries.
With a special reception at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, May 2, the UGA community and the general public are invited to celebrate the students who have contributed to the galleries, which are free and open to the public to display pieces of Georgia’s history, including images and icons from the political past to modern media.
During UGA’s spring semester, students participating in a capstone museum studies class, as well as several interns, worked on the projects from identifying specific topics to researching archival collections and writing captions and handling materials.
“These projects help drive home the concepts that these students are learning about museums and galleries,” said Jan Hebbard, exhibitions coordinator for the Special Collections Building.
These student projects can be found throughout the galleries of UGA’s three special collections units.
In the Signature Gallery for the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, students worked in teams to produce case exhibits on ballet’s evolution and cultural impact (Catie Cook, Sophie Johnson, Hannah Beam, Hampton Campbell for the Performing Arts case), photography and the abolitionist movement (Zoe Alvarez, Rachel Weber, David Rust, Susanna Teske, Christine Kegel for the Civil War case), and the works of American book artist Joni Mabe (Andrew East, Angelica Millen, Madeline Nagy, Sadie Pijanowski for the History of the Book case).
Intern Casen Joyner’s exhibit in the Natural History case of the Hargrett Gallery is entitled Plants and Prejudice: Women Gardeners in the 18th and 19th century. In addition, Madeline Nagy created an exhibit on HBO at 50 in the Peabody case of the Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, and Nicholas Dietz curated a selection of Dead-Ball Era Baseball Cards for the Russell Library for Political Research and Study.
At Tuesday’s event, which includes light refreshments, the Special Collections Libraries will premiere "Dognapped," a short film directed by student intern Abigail Smithwick, which was created to introduce a school age audience to the building and its archives.
The exhibits will remain on display through April 2024. The UGA Special Collections Libraries Building is open to visitors for free from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, with extended evening hours until 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. For more information or to schedule a tour, visit libs.uga.edu/scl.