The gallery’s layout includes six different bays, all of which have been updated with a new exhibition this week to mark the start of a new semester. Each is designed to house a unique collection of artwork handpicked jointly by class professors and museum curators. The exhibits change every six weeks for different course collaborations.
Carolyn Allmendinger, director of academic programs at the Ackland, is directly involved in this process.
“It’s my job to find connections between art in the Ackland and academics at the University,” she said.
Allmendinger said she works primarily with undergraduate and graduate students, including those from Duke University, Meredith College, UNC-Greensboro and local community colleges. Her main duties include coordinating with professors to determine which pieces to install in each exhibit, as well as teaching the classes that visit the gallery.
“The thing that I like about the teaching that I do here is the broad range of teaching that I can do,” Allmendinger said.
Tatiana String, a professor in UNC’s Art Department, has used the study gallery for her art history courses in the past and said she finds it to be a very useful resource.
“For art historians in North Carolina to be able to see works firsthand and not just on slides is fantastic,” String said. “They get to see things really up close, they get to see things for an extended period, and I think that really looking hard is an important skill for anybody, not just art majors.”
Currently on display in the gallery are exhibitions for courses such as Art History 89: “Islamic Art and Science,” and Geography 650: “Technology and Democracy.”
