PSU senior art history major Chris Greene researches an upcoming exhibition.
Chris Greene has seen a side of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (MFA) that most museum patrons never do. As a volunteer intern during the summer of 2003, he spent his time behind the scenes, learning how exhibitions are put together from the ground up.
“I gained a unique understanding of the MFA’s inner workings at the beginning of the project, as well as a heightened awareness of politics in a museum environment, and how it influences the everyday operations,” says Greene, a senior art history major and painting minor.
Greene originally came to Plymouth State as a science education major, but after taking an introductory art history course with Professor Dick Hunnewell, he knew he’d be following a different path.
He credits his PSU experience with giving him both the background and the confidence to succeed in the museum environment. “My museum studies and art history courses taught me how to conduct myself appropriately in a museum environment,” says Greene, adding that Plymouth’s learning environment promotes open dialogue with instructors as well as opening doors for internship possibilities.
As a Karl Drerup Art Gallery fellow, Greene worked with Catherine Amidon, director of exhibitions at Plymouth State, and was introduced to the research that precedes any exhibition. He had the opportunity to work with Amidon and guest curator Jane Port, curator of collections at the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth, Mass., on an upcoming exhibition of enamels by Karl Drerup, who taught at Plymouth from 1947 to 1968 and founded the University’s art department. That exhibition is scheduled to tour in 2007.
For the Drerup enamel exhibition, Greene located references in period art magazines, attended meetings with collectors and members of the Drerup family and accompanied Amidon and Port on a research trip to the Museum of the American Craft Council in New York City.
Port had previously worked with Jeannine Falino, then-curator of decorative arts and sculpture for the MFA’s Art of the Americas collection. With some guidance from Amidon, Greene contacted Falino to propose an internship at the museum. After an initial meeting with Falino, it was decided that Chris would be more appropriately placed in the Egyptian collection, which is larger and able to take a greater number of interns. And so he came to work for Yvonne Markowitz, research fellow in the MFA’s Art of the Ancient World collection.
Markowitz is an Egyptologist who specializes in ancient jewelry, but at the time Greene was working with her, she and Falino were beginning to prepare an exhibition of jewels and jewelry from Lewis Comfort Tiffany & Co. Greene’s task was to find background information on Tiffany’s use of American gem stones. This was one of Tiffany’s innovations—previously American jewelers had relied on European stones. Over 300 articles had been written on the subject by a gemologist named George Frederick Kunz. Markowitz needed these articles, but the most important were the earliest, from the 1880s and 1890s, which were also the hardest to find.
Greene spent much of his time in the Boston Public Library’s fine arts and special collections section and at the Dartmouth College library. He also met weekly with both Markowitz and Falino to discuss his progress.
“He’s a great researcher, very thorough,” Markowitz says. In addition to the research, Greene also learned about the use of storyboards and layouts in the planning stages of an exhibition.
“Chris Greene’s internship at the MFA is a testament to the quality of instruction in the art department, particularly in the student-oriented art history program and the museum studies course work,” says Amidon. “These academic programs lay an important foundation for Karl Drerup Art Gallery workers and fellows to use to transition into the highly competitive museum environment. Very few students were accepted nationally to summer fellowships at the MFA. It’s a tribute to Chris that he was among them.”
“This internship solidified my desire to work in a museum environment,” Greene says. He plans to pursue a master’s degree in art history; his current research efforts are in the area of graduate schools and programs. Ultimately, Greene says he sees himself working in a museum but hasn’t narrowed it down to a specific field yet. He’s looking forward to gaining curatorial experience, perhaps as an assistant to a director, in order to see the full range of activities.
Markowitz may sum it up best when she says, “He has a natural enthusiasm which is very nice. I think he’ll be successful in whatever he attempts.”—MLS
