Marica and Jan Vilcek
Curatorial Program
Owing to the generosity and vision of Marica Vilcek, Chair of our Board of Trustees, and her husband, the renowned biomedical scientist Dr. Jan T. Vilcek, the Institute has been able to create a program in curatorial practice and museum history. At least three curators from nearby museums and collections teach a seminar at the Institute each year, thereby enhancing our students’ understanding of the complex research and practical planning that go into organizing an exhibition, installing a set of galleries, developing the programming and other events associated with a curatorial project, and acquiring and caring for works of art.
We look forward to offering rigorous courses in curatorial practice in the coming academic year as we continue to offer training to the next generation of professionals in the field. It is a distinctive feature of our Marica and Jan Vilcek Curatorial Program that we integrate the study of the history and meaning of museums, with seminars on contemporary curatorial practices and the issues museums and collections face today, the research and preparation for specific exhibitions or reinstallations of collections, and the technical study of art history and the care of collections.
The Marica and Jan Vilcek Curatorial Program also provides two year-long, full-time curatorial fellowships for advanced PhD students, one fellowship to be held each year at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the other at any museum or collection.
Courses
Helen Frankenthaler: Curating in Practice. (Harry Cooper)
This seminar will offer a real-time window into the intellectual and practical aspects of organizing a major monographic exhibition. Led by a National Gallery curator organizing a retrospective of her work, participants will study the career of American painter Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011).
Acaye Kerunen: Polymath [Great Hall Exhibition] (Catherine Quan Damman and Prita Meier)
This seminar is required for the selected graduate student curators of the Fall 2025 Great Hall Exhibition featuring Acaye Kerunen (b. 1981, lives and works in Kampala, Uganda). In addition, seminar participants will collaboratively work together to realize Kerunen’s exhibition, giving them hands-on curatorial experience.
The Politics of Everyday Life in the Korean Empire (Daehan Jeguk), 1860-1910 (Eleanor Hyun and Iris Moon)
This course considers the visual and material culture of the Korean Empire (ca.1897-1910), and what Michel de Certeau described as the “practices of everyday life.” The short but dynamic decade of the Korean Empire (Daehan Jeguk) deserves serious reconsideration, beyond its typical position as the forgotten period between the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) and Japan’s colonization of Korea (1910-45).
In addition to readings and active discussion, this seminar will allow students to gain experience in examining works in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
