Introduction to project

Hello!

To introduce myself, my name is Finn Bishop-Duford. However, if you know too many Finns, Fern works too! I prefer he/they pronouns. I am a fourth-year museum studies student with an immersion in political science.

As I studied here at RIT, I began working with my community within the museum world. Because of this, my thesis and project are no exception to this. For my project, I will work with my alma mater, Ogdensburg Free Academy, to curate at the James F. Montpelier Gallery in Ogdensburg, New York. I am working with my old art teacher, Dianne Drayse-Alonso along with three other curators to explore our theme; "Finding Balance: Exploring our Relationship with Nature." The artwork displayed will be a variety of mediums including digital art, ceramics, paintings, drawings, and sculptures. All of these pieces will be made by students from Kindergarten to 12th grade, at Ogdensburg City School District. 

My desire for this project stems from my childhood dream to have one of my art pieces displayed in the gallery. This dream came true when I was in high school, but now I would like to take part in curating in the gallery with children who may have a similar dream. 

I am excited to be working on this project and updating everyone on my progress! Thank you for reading :)

Finn/Fern

Here is a photo of me and my cat Prismo!

Eliot Gavin Introduction to Topic

     Hi, my name is Eliot Gavin and I am a 3rd Year Museum Studies major with a minor in Human Resources Management. I am from Conesus, NY, and am passionate about accessibility, inclusion and community development in museums. I have been involved with my local history society (Livingston County Historical Society) for about five years and wanted to focus my undergraduate thesis on local history, specifically on The Castle on the Hill.

    

The Explorographer, Castle on the Hill, 2012, https://www.theexplorographer.com/2012/02/our-castle-on-the-hill/

    The Castle on the Hill has a long history that I will briefly go over, but you can read more about the history here. The Castle on the Hill is located in Dansville, NY (about 40 minutes from RIT) and first opened in 1854. The Castle on the Hill has operated as a water cure facility, a World War I psychiatric hospital, and most recently a health and wellness spa. Most Livingston County residents call the building The Castle on the Hill due to its location overlooking the Genesee Valley. 

    The era I want to focus on is from 1929 to 1971 when the building operated as "The Physical Culture Hotel" under the leadership of famous publisher and businessman, Bernarr Macfadden. The Physical Culture Hotel was a health and wellness resort that attracted many tourists to Dansville as well as employed many Dansville residents. In my role as a docent at the Livingston County Historical Society, I have heard many tales of locals meeting celebrities or having treasured family moments at the hotel. After MacFadden's death, the hotel closed and was bought by a private owner in the 1990s. 

    This has not stopped people from visiting the Castle. The Castle is a popular urban exploration destination in the Greater Rochester Area and unfortunately has undergone a lot of vandalism and deterioration due to neglect. Recently in 2023, there was a report of fire inside the Castle. Much of the original building was burned down. 

    In the past 20 years, there have been many futile attempts to "save" the Castle including trying to turn it into a medical office building. All these attempts have failed probably due to the dilapidated structure. I want to see how oral history can be a sufficient alternative to historical building preservation in the case of The Castle on the Hill. Right now, oral history seems like a cheaper and more practical way to capture the collective memory of the Castle on the Hill. 

    I will get into more detail about my plan for this project in my next post, but for right now I am looking at capturing 3 oral histories from people who have a personal connection to the Castle and host them on a blog. 

    Please reach out to me via email at ejg9342@rit.edu if you have any questions or concerns! I am so excited to start this project!

Hey Y'all!

Before I talk your ear off about accessibility, let me introduce myself! My name is Alexandra Suarez, and I also go by Ara :) I am a fourth-year Museum Studies transfer student with an immersion in Legal Studies. I will be graduating in the Spring of 2025. 

            Accessibility is one of the stables of my interests. Since the beginning of my college career, I have always been involved with projects that allow me to be of service to the public. Whether this is the Women's Self-Defense Workshops I've hosted or tending to and expanding a public garden to aid with the food scarcity crisis in the heart of Ybor City, Florida. While this desire has been met with different means, the focus has always been the same--to help others with social and economic disadvantages. 

In a previous position at the Genesee Country Village & Museum, I interned for the collections manager there, I was tasked with many opportunities to design, preserve, and catalog artifacts and exhibitions. I was able to focus on cataloging and creating a guideline for future interns. A key factor for cataloging is the data. I wanted to ensure the most readable, and detailed descriptions and data of an object to aid in when the collection is offered to the public. 

While I was able to help those who needed alt text and detailed descriptions, my experience at GCVM opened my eyes to another opportunity to make the museum more accessible. As my internship was coming to a close, my partner and mother-in-law wanted to come visit the museum. At first, I met them with excitement, but that soon faded as I realized they wouldn't be able to physically navigate the museum and historic houses. Locomotive disabilities are the most common disability in America. Whether this is due to a condition, or old age, museums should be accounting for this. With this brought to my attention I've decided to make Accessibility in Living Museums my thesis for my Museum Studies Bachelors. 

I am in the process of rendering my thesis further, and will keep the MUSE family updated on my journey! 

If you, or someone you know have had experiences with inaccessibility within Living Museums, or have a thought to share, please feel free to contact me via email. (ars3575@g.rit.edu). 

Thank you for listening & remember to rest as hard as you work! 

Ara~

(artist @titsay on twitter).

Greetings and Salutations-- Renee Guerin

 Hello, everyone! My name is Renee Guerin, and I am a fourth year Museum Studies and Painting dual major going into my final year here at RIT. 

As I’ve continued here at this institution, I have discovered a passion for preservation and conservation, especially within my jobs at a multispectral imaging lab on campus, focused on historical artifacts and accessibility, as well as at the Archives center in the Wallace Library. These opportunities, and my course work from both programs, has greatly influenced the development of my thesis, one of which I had been formulating since I transferred here a little over a year and a half ago. 

While I am still in the process of creating a title, my thesis will be a mixture of research paper, experimentation, and projects. My goal is creating two egg tempera pigments using traditional 15th century Italian techniques and recipes, as well as having a control variable of mainstream manufactured egg tempera, and testing of half life, pigment longevity, effectiveness as a media, and how it differs based on use of humane versus inhumane (ethical vs unethical) practices (i.e. caged eggs versus cage free, as an example). My end goal is to create a master copy of a tempera piece using these handmade pigments, and store bought ones, to see overall differences, how they interact with one another, and their reactions through experimentation. I will be focused on the use of accelerated aging ovens and multispectral imaging to understand the pigments further, and my tests will focus on these factors.

I aim, with this project and paper, to connect both the sciences and the arts in an interdisciplinary fashion, and be able to gain more hands-on experience and skill sets related to the field of painting conservation. Thank you for reading, and I will continue with more updates in the time to come!

Hello There!

 Hi y'all! I am Nic Feldman, a 3rd year Museum Studies Major with a Public Policy Immersion, and this is my last year here at RIT!

I'm writing this at the very beginning of my thesis journey, and by very beginning I mean I have just truly settled on my topic and have begun to research and lay out a plan of attack. My topic idea came from my first semester of being a MUSE student, when I assisted in RIT Archives in the curation and installation of Innovative Investments: 30 Years of Tom Golisano at RIT. During that process, I "came up" with an idea I coined "The Magpie Effect," where I reasoned that the inclusion of a shiny/reflective object, in this case a  brass plaque, would serve as a great way to catch peoples eyes as they walk by the exhibit. Unfortunately, the plaque wasn't included, and my theory went untested but the idea stuck with me, and I was able to somewhat develop it further over this past year. Through my continuing work at the RIT Archives and at my summer co-op at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I realized there was a social aspect to The Magpie Effect--- people tend to be more interested in an exhibit where they recognize the names and content within in a much more noticeable way.

I am having my thesis focus on the Magpie Effect, I find it a very intriguing idea, especially as I have a love for exhibits and exhibit design, but I'm not focusing on all the different aspects that I could potentially study, I am just focusing on the social aspect. Specifically, how visitor familiarity with exhibit content draws them in and connects them to the exhibit. 

Currently, I am working on research-- finding sources and figuring out what data has already been collected and how, so that when I go and do a visitor study, I have something to compare to, and something I can use as a reference to better understand my data.

Hopefully, I'll have more for y'all in a couple weeks! For now: my cat.

Pete, an orange cat, lying on a grey couch half asleep.

~~

Nic Feldman