If you go to the American Association of Museums website and search the various job descriptions for curators you will typically find the following requirements: excellent written and oral communication skills, strong leadership and organization capacity with the ability to work both independently and as part of a team, the flexibility to think both creatively and strategically about museum exhibitions and the local community and a degree in a relevant field such as art and/or history. A curator is responsible for acquiring pieces of art, etc. for the museum, deciding how to best exhibit them, and writing the publicity and explanatory material for the show.

If you were to visit a 10th grade history, English or art class right now at Webb you would find the students profoundly engaged in utilizing the exact same skill sets in the job description above, for they are in the middle of creating their own museum exhibitions. Charged with the real-world task of developing a unifying story through the careful selection of both classical and modern Western and non-Western art, they are thinking deeply about the value and influence of art. Upon visiting the Norton Simon Museum where they closely examined professional installations, they began using Google SketchUp to create their own 3-D model of exhibition space. Into these carefully crafted virtual rooms they have hung both their selected art and personal creations. In addition, using period literature as inspiration, the students have written a catalog to attract visitors and an audio guide to accompany them as they take in the original ideas and themes of the installation.

Interested? So are the students. The entire 10th grade will open their exhibitions to the public during The Webb Schools’ Open House held from 12:30-4:00pm on Sunday, January 17th.

The intersection of the humanities disciplines, the authentic problem solving, the community outreach, public accountability and clear connections between the past and present make this a rich, layered and powerful learning experience. The skills developed and the history studied are truly learned and understood, for the students are able to apply what they know. They add to this résumé of experience throughout their years at Webb. Just ask them about being archaeologists, journalists, radio show producers, documentary film directors and, yes, curators. The compelling questions and themes spiral up the curriculum and their knowledge, curiosity, and sophistication grow as they cultivate their skills. They are emerging professionals, college-bound and both ready and eager to meet the challenges of the future.

            The pioneering American composer John Cage once declared that an artist’s “proper business” is the cultivation of curiosity and awareness.  We arts teachers at Webb embrace this charge.

            In teaching students how to draw, we induce them to become more attentive and discerning observers. 

            In directing their dramatic efforts, we exhort them to descry the elusive emotional heart of diverse human predicaments. 

            In guiding their music-making, we invite them to listen acutely and to attend to the marvelous nuances of musical narratives.

            In exposing students to the defining efforts of their pioneering predecessors—to the remarkable re-cast worlds of Michelangelo, Klimt, and Rothko, of Shakespeare, Strindberg, and Kushner, of Beethoven and Ellington and Radiohead—we introduce them to the extraordinary richness of the world’s artistic heritage, and awaken thereby their sensitivity to the range, scope, and intensity of human creative endeavor.

            Describing the compositions of another American, Christian Wolff, Cage observed that “Wolff’s works invariably reveal to both performers and listeners energy resources in themselves of which they hadn’t been aware, and put those energies intelligently to work.”  An important parallel to our abetting keen student engagement is our nurturing students’ awareness of their own abundant creative energies.  We believe that anyone willing to try is capable of producing arresting work in art, theater, and music; and we are committed to creating the conditions in which students may feel emboldened to unleash their nascent talent.

            Ultimately, our students become fervent transmuters.  Deft, intrepid assayers of images, sounds, texts, and ideas, they imaginatively seize and transform the objects of their perception.  They absorb, parse, and temper, weaving these seminal, metamorphic phenomena into their disarmingly vivid artwork and revealing therein new ramifications and possibilities. 

            Withal they confirm another Cageian adage: Art is self-alteration.  Cultivating greater perceptual acuity, relishing the new discoveries that such acuity yields, and tapping their own teeming resources, our students develop dexterity and suppleness, a capacity for canny, nimble, eager response to anything they might encounter. 

            The goals of arts education, one quickly learns, jibe beautifully with those of liberal-arts education.

(Click here for more on Webb’s arts programs.)