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Museums Engagement Report: 2016-2017

When installing Rodin, The Human Experience, University Museums curators Richard Waller and Elizabeth Schlatter would place a sculpture on a pedestal, walk across the room, and look. Then they’d rotate it to the left, stand back, and look again.

Over and over, they’d repeat this process, changing, studying, trying again.

It was only a few degrees, but every shift showed a new profile, revealed subtle details and beautiful contours, and fostered a new appreciation for the artist’s genius.

Curators can spend hours searching for a position that elicits different effects with light, color, and texture. But museums also guide us through stories that draw on our diverse perspectives. A scientist might see Rodin’s “Three Faunesses” and think about how metal will flow through a mold to cast a shape. An artist might be drawn to the interplay of muscle and bone while a dancer is moved by Rodin’s ability to capture a body in motion.

Museums inspire us to experience art in ways that are uniquely our own, and encourage us to converse with one another and with the beauty that surrounds us.

people attended 160 tours
total visits to University Museums
people attended 75 programs
people attended 7 exhibition openings
times objects from permanent collection were used in tours
students, teachers, and parents attended 49 K-12 tours
University of Richmond students attended 99 class tours
Moments in the Museums
\"The bronze pour process can bedangerous, but rewarding. Liquid bronze is around 2,000 degrees. The metal is so hot that it will react vio...
Some students choose amajor. Lindsay Hamm,'17, created hers. It's artconservation: a blend ofchemistry, studio ar...
\"The idea behind 'TMT.170209' was to raiseawareness about the complex ecology of plastic toy reclamation. As an artist and mothe...