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Time for a study break? Get lost in the Rare Book Room.

Editor’s note: Gleeson Gleanings welcomes guest blogger Katelyn Frager, Museum Studies student.

Need a break from finals week? Come check out the Museum Studies class’ final project – the newest exhibition in USF’s Rare Book Room. “Unbind” with our student-curated exhibition, Unbound: Moving Through Time, Memory & Place in Modern Book Arts. This special exhibition is on display until June 14th, 2013, in the Donohue Rare Book Room on study break post 2the third floor of Gleeson Library. Students curated the collection in a way that focuses on a journey of time, memory and place in modern book arts. Highlighting three “worlds” – Worlds Near & Far, Poetic and Literary Worlds, and Imagined Worlds – the exhibition progresses from existing places and historical moments to more abstracted, mythic evocations.

This project gave 20 Art History/Arts Management students (including me!) the chance to get hands-on experience in curating and designing an exhibition from start to finish. With the assistance of the Donohue Rare Book Room’s curator John Hawk, our Museum Studies Professor Kate Lusheck, and Design Professors Scott Murray and Stuart McKee, study break postwe worked on all aspects of the exhibition—curating the display, developing the exhibition theme and curatorial sub-themes, creating the exhibition labels and wall panels, and designing and conceptualizing the public relations materials (print and online). By splitting into two teams – the curatorial team and the design/public relations team – we spent the semester selecting works to display, researching and writing about the objects in the exhibition, photographing them, and designing PR materials, in just a matter of months! (The typical planning window of many museum exhibitions is a few years.)

Join us on May 9th from 12pm to 2:30pm in the Donohue Rare Book Room for our free,Dons! post public exhibition reception, with gallery talks by the student curators.  Bring your smartphones and tablets too. Our exhibition labels will be available using QR codes.

So come take a mental break from your textbooks to get lost in the beauty and meaning of these often-overlooked books! We hope to see you there.

Check us out on Tumblr too!  http://unboundusfca.tumblr.com/

– Katelyn Frager, Junior Museum Studies student, Art History/Arts Management Major