Charting One’s Course

This website was established as the result of a year-long exploration focusing on individualized education undertaken by RIT Archive Collections, the College of Liberal Arts Museum Studies program, the School of Individualized Study at RIT and RIT Alumni Relations. The website is a companion to the exhibition Charting One’s Course:The History of Individualized Education at RIT featuring photographs, memorabilia and remembrances from some notable alumni – dating back to the 1880s. The exhibition is on view in The Wallace Center from November 30, 2016 through through April 14, 2017. See exhibition invitation and details here.

Link to site: https://ritsois.wordpress.com/

Link to timeline: http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/637072/Charting-Ones-Course-The-History-of-Individualized-Education-at-RIT/

When Rochester Was Royal

In 1951, Rochester’s Royals were NBA champions. Six years later, the team was gone. When Rochester Was Royal: Professional Basketball in Rochester 1945-1957, chronicles the Royals’ entrance to and exit from Rochester’s sporting landscape. Curated by a team of museum studies faculty at RIT—Rebecca Edwards, Juilee Decker, and Michael Brown—this exhibition explores the team, its town, and its time at the pinnacle of professional basketball.

In keeping with the desire of the Museum Studies Program at RIT to provide opportunities for further learning and connection with other disciplines, the exhibition will be supported by the creation of digital ancillaries by museum studies students. As Juilee Decker, associate professor of museum studies noted, “a cornerstone of our museum studies program is working at the intersection of theory and praxis. Students in my courses are reading about visitor engagement and coming to understand how the space of the museum can be a platform for content as well as conversation. They apply what they are reading to their design and execution of exhibition content and ancillaries.” Kelli Spampinato, a third-year museum studies major who is part of the team developing this exhibition added, “Working on this project has helped me to understand all of the steps of creating and executing an exhibition. Projects like this help take the theory we have learned in this class and others and make it practical. Doing work in class that will actually be put to use for the public has made me feel as though my education has come full circle.”

Link to site: https://royalsexhibit.wordpress.com/

Kate’s 150th

This exhibition serves as a tribute to Kate Gleason’s multifaceted achievements in the fields of engineering, manufacturing, banking, and building.

Kate Gleason’s name is so familiar to everyone in the RIT community that it can obscure our recognition of her many and varied accomplishments.  Born in Rochester on 25 November 1865, she was an entrepreneur and innovator who became internationally recognized for her acumen in business promotion and community development.  Her interests were wide-ranging, spanning the fields of engineering, manufacturing, banking, and building.  Over the course of her career, she managed multiple businesses and factories, and was instrumental in the planning and construction of several communities, in East Rochester, NY, Beaufort, SC, Sausalito, CA, and Septmonts, France.  Her concerns for advancing the rights of women and the well-being of workers underlay all of her projects.  That her accomplishments exceeded the expectations of women of her day was recognized by Susan B. Anthony, who described Kate Gleason as the ideal business woman of whom she had dreamed for fifty years.

This exhibition was produced by a faculty committee from the College of Liberal Arts at RIT, and the website was created by undergraduate Museum Studies students (see acknowledgements).

Link to site: https://kates150th.wordpress.com/

Resistance, Rebellion, & Renewal In Rochester

Resistance, Rebellion, and Renewal in Rochester: Narratives of Progress and Poverty examines more than one hundred years of Rochester’s history to illuminate the co-existence of wealth and progress with poverty and lack of opportunity. In at least three separate periods, 1913, 1964, and 2015, these circumstances have spurred action in the form of resistance, rebellion, and renewal – while altogether jeopardizing the social fabric of the city.

While the situations in 1913 and 1964 demonstrated how affluent citizens and city officials were blindsided when Rochesterians resorted to public action to express anger at their marginalization from the quality of life that had been promoted, today we are witnessing community leaders and citizens working together to ameliorate adverse conditions because, as Mayor Warren stated, “This divide has both immediate human consequences and short- and long-term economic consequences.”

This exhibition was produced by a faculty committee from the College of Liberal Arts at RIT, and the website was created by undergraduate Museum Studies students (see acknowledgements).

 

Link to site: https://progressandpovertyrochester.wordpress.com/