The Apprentice:
students installexhibit, "the african-american
experience
at mary washington college,"
at simpson library
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Recent
2004 graduates, Kristen Matlick, Ryan Winfield, Brandi Rapalee
and Sarah Stebbins, gather in front of their exhibit, “The
African-American Experience at Mary Washington College.”
These students along with Michele Heimiller, Vickie Stuart,
and Katie McQueen researched and designed the display.
Amid an array of labels, tape, and mylar, Sarah Stebbins ’04 leaned
over and asked her fellow classmates if the Battlefield yearbook was
positioned correctly. “Closer to the front,” directed Brandi
Rapalee ’04. Meanwhile, Ryan Winfield ’04 was busy selecting
images and texts for his panel.
Why all this activity in the usually quiet lobby of Simpson Library?
It was exhibit installation day – a day these Historic Preservation
students had been preparing for all semester.
HISP 463, a course called “Laboratory in Museum Design and Interpretation,”
is the ticket for many historic preservation majors into real world
museum exhibition. The course evolved, according to Professor John Pearce,
“from a modest exhibit design exercise that used to be part of
our introductory ‘Museum Techniques’ course.” The
exhibit portion grew into the stand-alone course it is today, producing
exhibits ranging from a timeline on the history of Hanover County to
a reorganization of the James Madison Museum’s “Hall of
Agriculture” in Orange County.
The students benefit by learning the process of exhibit creation, receiving
hands-on experience, and producing a completed final work to showcase
on their résumés. Venues in which the exhibits are displayed
benefit by having top-notch work produced at little or no cost.
“Theory is one thing, but practicing it is another,” said
Michele Heimiller, a senior who is double majoring in history and historic
preservation. “We had to decide everything from what to mount
. . . to what size the font would be.” Vickie Stuart, who graduated
in the spring, has already found practical application for the knowledge
and skills she gained in her historic preservation classes. She is a
museum technician for the National Park Service.
Last year, Pearce’s students researched and designed four exhibits.
In addition to the two exhibits at Simpson, which were part of the library’s
larger program commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board
of Education decision – “The African-American Experience
at Mary Washington College” and “James Farmer: The Legacy”
– they also undertook another project that entailed researching
the history of Prince William Forest National Park. Their final work
was a departmental exhibit on the history of the University of Mary
Washington’s buildings and its traditions. (Bet you didn’t
know that the campus building, Framar, derived its name from the combined
first names of its builders, Frank and Marion Reichel.)
After conducting so much research and surviving the rigors of mounting
an exhibit, students “love having done something real,”
Pearce said. “They clearly see it as relevant to their future
possibilities.”
– Carolyn S. Parsons