Needing Green Space, Seeking Solace

Needing Green Space, Seeking Solace is an exhibition of photographs organized by SUNY Buffalo State graduate students in museum studies and their instructor, Nancy Weekly. The Collection Study Gallery exhibition coincides with Burchfield Botanicals, which will be on view in the adjacent Burchfield suite galleries June 13 through November 9, 2014. Public and private gardens, gardeners, and flowers as metaphorical subjects comprise the theme for selections from the Burchfield Penney Art Center’s collection, with a special focus on the work of Marion Faller, who made a significant donation in 2012 that represents the range of her life’s work. To complement Faller’s photography, the students have selected works by Western New York photographers Justine Kurland, Janelle Lynch, Arnold Mesches, Christopher Nickard, and Milton Rogovin.

The exhibition was created by graduate students in the museum studies course, “Researching and Presenting Museum Collections,” who include: Megan Barr, Margaret Coghlan, Alana Fajemisin, Brittney Jimerson, Karrie Myers, and Allison Spongr. They worked with Nancy Weekly, Burchfield Penney Instructor of Museum Studies at SUNY Buffalo State, who is also Head of Collections and the Charles Cary Rumsey Curator at the Burchfield Penney Art Center. The students selected images, researched the subject matter, and wrote label texts for adults and children. Their written texts have been collected in a binder and will be kept in the museum’s document files for future reference.