Capstone Milestone and Reflections

The Spring 2022 Capstone Exhibition, Reflections: Visual Constructions of Race marks a major milestone for one of the museum’s signature programs, the eleventh of its kind. The capstone exhibition program is unique in many ways. The exhibition is a collaboration between the Art & Architecture History program. Capstone students engage with the museum to learn all aspects of curating a major exhibition. Each year in rotation, Art & Architecture History faculty teach the Capstone class most often themed in alignment with their area of specialty. Unlike most senior capstones generally offered in the final semester of one’s senior year, this one is in the Fall so that students will be around to see their work in person the subsequent Spring semester and participate in special programming and receptions. 

The MUAM/Art History Capstone program began in 2012 when Curator of Exhibitions, Jason Shaiman, and Art History Associate Professor Pepper Stettler began discussing this concept in 2011. In May 2012, The 1970s: An Eclectic Art Invasion, became the first Capstone exhibition. It only took one time to see that this was a fantastic concept and so it began. Since then the capstone class shifted to being a Fall offering. More than 100 students have participated, and over 400 works from MUAM’s collection have been displayed.