Each year, Ringling College Galleries and Exhibitions Director and Chief Curator Tim Jaeger teaches a Business of Art and Design class on exhibition design and management that explores the complexity of curating exhibitions and programming. The class organizes a public exhibition in one of the campus galleries. Students are divided into different teams to tackle different areas of the larger project of mounting an exhibition—a design team, an event team, curators, and marketing. The students work collaboratively and they work hard.
This year, the ambitious students of the Business class organized two exhibitions simultaneously: Jack Davis: Legacy of Laughter, a retrospective of drawings and ephemera featuring the widely recognizable, if not infamous, works by the Mad magazine cartoonist, and Nothing New: Archives of Affection, a historic collection of daguerreotypes of male couples from the early and mid-19th century.
Located in the Willis Smith Gallery, Archives of Affection presents 300 tiny portraits of queer love in a dimly lit, soft pink painted gallery, full of cozy furniture and offering an intimate atmosphere. The museological setting situates the portraits, not in a cozy intimate space of the era of their making, but in a contemporary home, as if they were cherished portraits of family members or queer ancestors who paved the way for future gay and trans folks to experience loving relationships. Visitors to the exhibition can literally put themselves in the shoes of the portrayed couples via an AI projection that transforms participants into tin-type characters.
Peter Enrico and Terry Stache generously shared their collection with the College for the exhibition. The collection started when Enrico stumbled upon a photograph in a bin at an antique shop in the 1980s and then continued collecting them for 20 years until it had grown to 400 or 500 photos. The portraits lived in a suitcase in his closet for decades before being brought into the light for Archives of Affection.
The Business of Art and Design course offers an opportunity for students to experience real work while still in school. They can put the exhibition on their resume, plus they have worked through issues and complications that come up, while in the supportive company of their peers and faculty. Throughout the semester, professionals working in each of the four roles performed by the students give talks and answer pointed questions that range from blue sky and philosophical, to advice for minute and detailed situations.
This course offered more than its usual practical support. Putting on this exhibition meant a lot to a group of queer and ‘othered’ students. Kelsey Knight ’24, Visual Studies, was part of the design team that organized the exhibition. Knight described the relief they found in arriving at Ringling College, and how much this exhibition meant to them.
“This exhibit and the story, I think people need to hear about this and see it. I’m a part of the LGBTQ+ community and it means a lot to see my brothers and sisters from the past and see that we’ve been here all along. I grew up in a small-minded community in Georgia. From childhood people let me know I was different. It was rough not being understood. Coming to Ringling College—it’s been really nice being understood and feeling safe.”
See the exhibition at the next Art Walk event on Friday, January 17, from 5-8 pm.
The event is free and open to the public. In-person viewings are free and open to the public Tuesday-Saturday, 10 am-4 pm, and by appointment.
This exhibition is sponsored by The Community Foundation of Sarasota County, The Exchange, and WUSF. Special thanks to Pamela and Richard Mones for generously supporting the Ringling College Exhibition Design and Management Class and this exhibition.
