Philanthropist Emily Sibley Watson founded the Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) as a department of the University in 1913, and it has been expanding ever since — gaining new space, collections, and audiences. In the coming years it has a new goal: to increase student engagement with the museum.
Senior and MAG intern Ella Smith is working with the museum to create a College Night that will do just that.
“It’s gonna be an event where students can all gather together for […] a night of fun,” she said. “Experience art and realize that MAG is an opportunity for people, and it is a resource for students.”
Smith has been working with the MAG since the summer to plan an event for college students throughout the Rochester area to visit the museum and participate in activities curated for students to enjoy. The Nov. 22 event will feature mocktails, a game of exquisite corpse, and more — all alongside the MAG’s Drawing of Discovery exhibit.
The activity ideas stem from a “focus group” meeting that Smith held on Sept. 13. Students from UR, RIT, St. John Fisher, SUNY Brockport, Monroe Community College, and Nazareth University all came together to give suggestions for what they would like to see at an event catered towards students.
Among the students present at this event were SA President Elijah Bader-Gregory and Secretary of Public Relations Earl Bumagat. They have been working with both Smith and the MAG administration to hash out not only the night itself but a long term strategy for getting more University students to the museum.
“Clubs that are relevant to art — whether that’s Photography Club, or Creative Arts Club, or something else — have access to the MAG and [should] really just go there,” Bader-Gregory said.
One of the previous difficulties that stopped students from visiting the MAG was a lack of transportation, Bader-Gregory explained. As of this summer, with the Orange Line’s new stop at the museum, that is no longer an issue.
But there is more than just transportation problems keeping students from taking advantage of all the museum offers..
According to MAG’s Lead Academic and Donor Engagement Specialist, Margot Muto, because it is removed from the main undergraduate campus, many UR students are not aware of it and of the resources it provides, such as its extensive art library.
“We want to make sure that our students, our faculty, our colleagues are taken care of,” Muto said.
To aid in this, she expects to incorporate Rocky Bucks into the museum’s restaurant, the Brown Hound Downtown, by the end of the fiscal year.
But the first attempt to increase student engagement with the MAG is November’s college night, which students can attend the evening of Nov. 22.
