Praxis Course: Museum Studies Fieldwork Seminar
Semester: Spring 2026
Faculty Advisor/Professor: Monique Scott
Community Partner: Woodmere Art Museum
Praxis Site Supervisor: Amy Gillette
Praxis Poster:
Further Context:
This semester I was a curatorial intern at the Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. I had never been to the Woodmere prior to this semester, but had heard of and briefly met my site supervisor, Amy Gillette, from her collections research at the Barnes and background in medieval art history. Initially, I was excited to work with her and learn more about a local institution with which I was not previously familiar. My major goals were to gain collections research experience and get a better sense of the comprehensive history of Philadelphia arts movements and institutions from the nineteenth century to present day. Woodmere features art and artists of Philadelphia across two nineteenth-century mansions and outdoor wonders, including larger-than-life installations, masterful sculptures, and thoroughly tended gardens. Charles Knox Smith Hall houses the original nineteenth century collection of the Woodmere’s founder, a massive two-level gallery and events space with a balcony, studios for classes and workshops, and rotating exhibitions like the current retrospective Syd Carpenter: Planting in Time, Place, Memory. I met Amy here every two weeks in her office, but got to conduct most of my work on art in the newly opened Maguire Hall, which features twentieth and twenty-first century collections, and an extensive downstairs jewelry vault.
One of my most exciting curatorial projects was helping Amy and catalogue contributors prepare for a retrospective on the late Philadelphia artist Moe Brooker, to open in September 2026. I helped flesh out the existing
bibliography by contacting galleries from around the country inquiring into details and documents for their solo exhibitions of Brooker’s work from 1977 to as recent as 2019 (and, in cases when exhibition catalogues seemed less likely, I was able to verify their nonexistence). I organized these findings into a spreadsheet to assist current catalogue contributors, including Professor Scott and Bryn Mawr Presidential Fellow Annalise Ashman. As part of this work on the “Moe Brooker Team,” I got to attend an oral history of about ten people facilitated by Leslie King-Hammond. This included Amy, people in Education, the director of the museum, and many people who knew Brooker personally, like Peter Paone, an artist in his 90s who made the fabulous Snow People series on display in the Woodmere, and Katherine Stanek, a Philly galerist with whom I had gotten in touch regarding solo exhibition catalogues. This was one of the most incredible experiences of my semester, and got me thinking about the potential
of “oral art histories” to shape museum displays, inform curatorial and catalogue-writing decisions, and inspire conversation that keeps artists alive in work and memory. Because many curators and art historians are friends, classmates, colleagues, teachers, and collaborators with artists, their ability to animate and emotionally revive the distinct zeitgeist of the Philadelphia art scene in the 1950 to the present is so valuable. It is also such a rare experience for me, since most of the work I study is medieval or antique, and has no artist biography or cohort or movement attached.
Amy put a lot of trust in me to do this work, and I am so grateful for it! This internship made me feel so connected to Philadelphia art and artists, through my literal contact with the art, research in Center City, work
uploading pieces to the new website, and on-site museum events. Often, ethical discourse during Museum Studies leaves me discouraged about entering the field. The Woodmere is a great example of how a museum can represent, involve, and serve the community. I look forward to seeing the Moe Brooker retrospective next semester as an example of this work, which I am so grateful to have been a part of!