The art of curating

Michelangelo created a furor when he unveiled his Last Judgment, a monumental depiction of Christ sorting the heaven bound from the damned, painted on a wall of the Sistine Chapel. On the one hand, senior Alexandra Gramuglia explained, Catholic authorities prized sacred art as a means to educate the illiterate masses on the faith. On the other hand, she added, the artist’s rendering of so many nude figures in fraught poses gave them pause. Ultimately, Catholic leaders decided to keep the painting, but enlisted another artist to paint drapes over many of the nudes.

Gramuglia relishes delving into the aesthetic and historical significance of the Last Judgment and other works of art. “In my art history major, I do a lot of visual analysis, talking about the way the art looks,” she said. “My leadership studies major helps me with the cultural analysis. What motivated the artists to make their art? What was the socio-cultural impact of their art? How does art relate to a particular political movement?”

The senior from East Brunswick, New Jersey, hopes to parlay her love of art into a career as a curator. To that end, she completed her Jepson School of Leadership Studies internship this past summer as a gallery and exhibitions intern at the Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences in New Jersey. She received a Burrus fellowship from the Jepson School to support her credit-bearing internship.  

During the summer, she wrote print materials, including press releases, pamphlets, and exhibit labels, and unpacked and hung artwork for LBIF’s three summer gallery exhibitions. She also assisted with the foundation’s auction of local artists’ work.

The highlight of her internship, Gramuglia said, was the chance to interview Kim Conaty, chief curator of New York City’s renowned Whitney Museum of American Art, who served as a juror for an LBIF show. They discussed Conaty’s curation of a recent Whitney exhibition of the work of modern American artist Ruth Asawa, who died in 2013.

“It was interesting to hear Conaty’s methodology for interacting with Asawa’s family,” the senior said. “What are the ethics of exhibiting the art of contemporary artists? They and their families often have set expectations about how to think about their art.”

Upon returning to Richmond in August, she began working as a modern and contemporary art curatorial intern at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, researching more than 520 pieces of modern and contemporary art. “I nerd out when I research,” Gramuglia said. “I feel a connection to the past and love learning about a movement, group of people, or a place.”

This year, she also serves as the Harnett Curatorial Fellow at University of Richmond’s Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art. In that role, she is helping University Museums executive director Issa Lampe curate a spring exhibition on the University’s recent acquisitions. And she just began work on a solo assignment — curating a display for the so-called cabinet of curiosity, a large display case on the second floor of the Modlin Center for the Arts.

“The concept of cabinets of curiosity dates to 16th-century Europe when patrons kept collections of art and natural history objects on shelves in their private studies,” Gramuglia said. “I’m currently looking through the University’s decorative arts collection to see what to include in our cabinet of curiosity.”   

The aspiring curator also is writing her art history thesis on Italian Renaissance patroness of the arts Isabella d’Este, who had a passion for collecting antiquities at a time when most people considered collecting a male pastime. Like her Renaissance heroine, Gramuglia aims to dedicate herself to collecting and curating art.

“I’m especially interested in curating Renaissance art in a way that makes it more applicable to the twenty-first century — looking at women, the poor, and racial dynamics.”