Students from Bryn Athyn College and the University of Pennsylvania

Glencairn Museum News | Number 6, 2012

Julia Perratore with a 12th-Century Haloed Queen from St.-Thibaut, Provins, France.

This summer Glencairn Museum welcomes Julia Perratore (pictured in the Great Hall), who has been awarded a Curatorial Fellowship by the University of Pennsylvania. Julia will be working with Glencairn’s curator, Ed Gyllenhaal, on a variety of projects, including an exciting new exhibition this fall. When she is not working at Glencairn, Julia will be finishing up her dissertation on the Romanesque sculpture of Spain. In addition to Glencairn, four other area museums have been chosen to participate in this prestigious summer program: The Barnes Foundation, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Rosenbach Museum & Library, and The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Figure 1: Glencairn 2011–2012 interns at the annual Medieval Festival.

Since last September, ten students from Bryn Athyn College have received college credit in education, history, or religion as part of the Museum Internship Program at Glencairn Museum. This year eight interns worked in Glencairn’s education department, where they assisted with the Museum’s programs for the general public and students of all ages: Chris Alt, Jessica David, Amy Dwyer, Bethany Flowers, Katie Gravatt, Raven Posey, Becca Uber, and Ashley Werkheiser.

In addition, Ian Rose worked in the Glencairn Museum Archives under archivist Greg Jackson to process a collection of papers from the Bryn Athyn Stone Company. The Stone Company supplied granite from the Bryn Athyn quarry during the construction of Bryn Athyn Cathedral and Glencairn.

Bronwyn Simons did a retail internship with education coordinator Diane Fehon in Glencairn’s museum shop as part of Bryn Athyn College’s Experiential Education program. Bronwyn developed an organized system for shop storage, created a computer system for the guest services desk, and streamlined the checkout process for sales.

Figure 2: Glencairn interns with a 15th-Century tapestry depicting a boar hunt.

Glencairn Museum has been offering internships in conjunction with Bryn Athyn College since 1995. The purpose of the Museum Internship Program is to help students develop job-related skills and clarify career goals. Dr. Devin Zuber, now an Assistant Professor at the Pacific School of Religion, interned at Glencairn during the 2000–2001 school year. According to Devin, “My work at Glencairn Museum has truly been one of the most crucial and formative experiences in my life. On a personal level, my interaction with the very diverse public that visits the museum has taught me tremendous leadership and communication skills, and effectively prepared me for a professional life.”

Julia Perratore, who will graduate from the University of Pennsylvania this August with a Ph.D. in Art History, is spending the summer at Glencairn as a Curatorial Fellow. The Curatorial Fellowship is sponsored and funded by the Department of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania. The purpose of this program is to assist students who wish to develop and refine their curatorial skills in area museums.

Figure 3: Julia Perratore with a 12th-Century Apocalyptic Elder from Southwest France.

According to Julia, “Glencairn’s collection of medieval art is truly marvelous, offering a rare opportunity to study the Middle Ages up-close in an American institution, and my exploration of the museum’s holdings has delighted me thus far. I am pleased to learn more and more about medieval stained glass each day, though as a sculpture specialist, I am particularly fond of Glencairn’s many exquisite works of Romanesque stone carving. These works, mostly dating from the twelfth century, bring back to life the beliefs, customs and even the sense of humor of patrons, artists and spectators that lived long ago. There is no substitute for the powerful experience of viewing medieval art in person, and I hope that my research on the collection will enrich visitors’ explorations of Glencairn in the future!”

(CEG)

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