By Sofia Montoya-Deck
Published Oct. 30, 2023
Hood College’s newest exhibit, “Class from the Past,” features many items of Hood’s history, including old blazers and dinks, yearbooks from the 1970s and photographs dating as far back as the college’s origin.
“Class from the Past” was curated by five gallery management students: Robin Draetta, Tylere Hubbard, Melanie Perry, Ella Rosenberg and Laura Stang. Also involved in the production were gallery director Bonnie Kern, archives director Mary Atwell and director of alumni Kellye Greenwald.
Visitors of the exhibit will learn many traditions of Hood College past, such as May Day celebrations, where students spun ribbons around a pole outside Brodbeck Hall and competed for the best class costumes before crowning a May Queen and Prince Hood. Since Hood was an all-women’s college at the time, the ladder would often be a woman dressed as a man.
Kern explained that her gallery management class aims to incorporate other departments when considering potential exhibitions. “We want to bring recognition to the Hood College archives so we can, as a student body and community, engage with the past events and artifacts of Hood College,” she said.
Within her class, Kern prioritizes the opportunity of learning by doing. “What better way to learn how to run a gallery and curate an entire exhibition from idea to reception than by doing?” she said.
After an initial visit to the Hood archives with Atwell, each student was put in charge of an element of the exhibit, which was divided into blazers and dinks, yearbooks and buttons, Hood t-shirts, dining place settings and a photograph display. “We each had a couple things that stood out to us that we really liked that we wanted to include,” Draetta explained.
Gallery management students had a set day for installation where they brought together their archival findings to lay out the exhibit. They organized each detail of the display and were even tasked with leveling and drilling shelves into the gallery walls. “It took a long time,” Draetta said laughing.
“To the point where we left and got dinner and came back and kept hanging shelves,” Rosenberg added.
Draetta’s favorite part of the exhibit is the photos. “It was really cool to look at,” he said. “There are photos from the 1890s when the school was first created. It’s so interesting because the basic structure of the campus hasn’t changed.”
Also included in the exhibit is a makeshift table setting with antique dining hall chairs. “It’s so crazy to think about how the dining hall used to be,” Rosenberg said. “Like how they used to have servers and place settings, and everyone had their own engraved napkin rings, but it’s also the same dining hall we eat in.” To Draetta’s point: “It’s where we have chicken nugget Thursdays.”
The student curators held a reception on Friday, Oct. 13, which students, faculty and Hood alum attended. One attendee, Sara Zimmerman '62, pointed herself out in a few photographs and shared her past experiences as a student.
Zimmerman explained that while working as a server in the dining hall, students were uniformed in starched white coats and weren’t allowed to wear pants. She admitted to Rosenberg that she had been scolded on multiple occasions for rolling up her pants in an attempt at passing them off as a skirt. Ultimately, she was told to go back home and change. “It was so nice to be able to connect with people who were actually in these photos,” Rosenberg noted.
Kern already has ideas for upcoming exhibits, potentially delving into the yearbook archives by printing past covers and pages on large paper to be put on display. “That is the fun of running a gallery,” she said. “There are many ideas we can pursue to feature in the gallery. [There is] always fun in planning and thinking up new ideas for exhibitions.”
"Class from the Past" is available for viewing in the Whitaker Campus Center gallery until Nov. 10.
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