3.5. Curation

Marina Moskowitz, Design Studies, School of Human Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Prior to my academic career at the University of Glasgow and University of Wisconsin-Madison, I worked as a museum curator for several years, and have taught some public history and public humanities, as well as working with students on exhibitions. More recently, with my return to the US, I have the opportunity to work closely with some campus collections (including an advisory role on acquisitions for our campus textile collection) and channel some of my research into exhibitions in the two galleries in my school. A recent exhibition entitled Politics at Home: Textiles as American History was reviewed in the June 2022 issue of Journal of American History.

Description of workshop 

“Let’s put on a show!”

After a brief introduction considering different types of “curation” that might be useful to business historians/historians of capitalism, as well as some pragmatics about different forms that collections and exhibitions can take and what they require, incorporating curatorial projects into the business history classroom, etc. While I am happy to share my own experiences, I also welcome others in the group to do so!

With a shared understanding of some benefits and pitfalls of this “form”, I propose that the group craft an exhibit together! (Very, very quickly!)

***To that end, please “bring” to the workshop one material artifact (could be an object, a text-based document, a building, etc) that you feel in some way relates to the history of business, broadly construed. (Honestly, it’s hard to find artifacts that don’t relate–in some way–to the history of business!) If the object can be hand-held and shown on a zoom camera, that’s grand, but otherwise an image (or even a description) will suffice. If people want to start sharing their chosen objects prior to the workshop along with their participant info below, that would be even better!!***