The Yale Center for British Art Undergraduate Student Guide Program offers undergraduates from all disciplines the opportunity to work closely with works of art and museum staff. Student guides meet weekly to learn about the Center’s collections, special exhibitions, and operations. Guides create tours on topics of their choosing, which are open to all visitors and take place on Saturdays and Sundays during the academic year. Guides also offer tours for special campus events such as Bulldog Days and Family Weekend.
The Student Guide Program began in the fall of 2002 under the guidance of the Center’s Education Department with the aim of increasing the profile and use of the Center among Yale undergraduates. Guides develop additional programming based on their areas of interest. Art Club is a Student Guide-led initiative, started in 2006. In April 2010, the guides designed and led the first Student Guide Open House to raise awareness on campus about the Center and their tours; nearly 300 people came through the Center during this event.
The program is run under the guidance of Linda Friedlaender, Curator of Education, and Jessica Dilworth, Museum Educator. Applications for the 2012–13 academic year will be posted in summer 2012.
Follow the Student Guides on their facebook page.
Art in Focus: Tudor Panel Painting
April 13–July 29, 2012
Art in Focus is an academic initiative for members of the Student Guide Program, through which students are introduced to every aspect of exhibition practice. Students intensify their engagement with the Center’s collections, strengthen their research skills, and test writing in new formats. Student curators select objects for exhibition, write text panels and object labels, and make decisions about installation.
The sixth exhibition in this initiative, Art in Focus: Tudor Panel Painting, explores Tudor painting technique and examines the condition of key paintings in the Center’s collection. Pictures in the collection will be examined using a variety of analytical techniques employed in modern conservation practice, such as x-radiography and infra-red reflectography, x-ray fluorescence and polarizing light microscopy, to determine each work’s material makeup, technique of fabrication, and subsequent physical history. Past restorations and current state, issues which affect a picture’s cosmetic appearance and art historical interpretation, will be explored with a variety of didactic material.
The student curators of Art in Focus: Tudor Panel Painting are Hannah Flato DC ’14, Ilana Harris-Babou BR ’13, Yidan Li CC ’14, and Yuxiu Zhong MC ’12. The students have worked under the guidance of Mark Aronson, Chief Conservator; Jessica David, Assistant Paintings Conservator; Linda Friedlaender, Curator of Education; and Jessica Dilworth, Museum Educator.
Tours of the exhibition, led by Student Guides, are scheduled for Saturday, April 14 at 2 and 3 pm, and Sunday, April 15 at 2 and 3 pm.