The Allen Memorial Art Museum strives to be a vibrant part of every Oberlin student’s educational experience. Our galleries are open to you as a space to contemplate an artwork, relax on a study break, socialize with friends, or learn about the museum profession.  Whether it’s joining your class for a tour, living with our Art Rental objects on your dorm room wall, gaining work experience in one of our departments, or volunteering as a student docent, we invite you to make the museum a highlight of your time at Oberlin College.

Events
Student Docent Program
Winter Term
Student Assistant Positions
Researching the Collection

EVENTS

• Parents Orientation
  Join us Tuesday, August 26 at 1:30 p.m. for a tour of the museum's renowned permanent collection and preview of the fall exhibitions. Come and see some of the biggest names in the art world, including Ribera, Rubens, Turner, Matisse, and Picasso. Meet inside the front doors.

• New Student Orientation
  Students new to Oberlin are invited Friday, August 29 at 2:30 p.m. for a tour of the museum's renowned permanent collection and preview of the fall exhibitions. Come and see some of the biggest names in the art world, including Ribera, Rubens, Turner, Matisse, and Picasso. Meet inside the front doors.

• Art Rental
  Since 1940, the Art Rental program has allowed Oberlin students to rent two original works of art each semester. For more information, see AMAM - Art Rental.

• Oberlin-in-London Event
  Join us Thursday, September 25 from 4:30 - 6:00 p.m. at AMAM to learn more about the Danenberg Oberlin-in-London Program. The new exhibition "'The Englishness of English Art:' British Treasures from the AMAM Collection" will serve as a focus as Professor of History Steve Volk and Curator Colette Crossman discuss museological issues raised in his Spring 2009 London course, "Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge."

• Allen After Hours
  The AMAM kicked off the 2007-2008 school year with a special evening of art, food, music, and fun in the AMAM galleries, just for students. On Thursday, October 4, 2007 from 7:00 - 9:30 p.m., over 300 students explored our fall exhibitions, discovered a new favorite artwork, or participated in an interactive multi-media installation, 'The Co-Ed Bed,' by Cleveland-based arts collective Gallery U Haul.  Click here for more details.

Watch this space for upcoming the date of the Fall 2008 Allen After Hours!

• Tours and Events for Student Groups
  All student associations such as extracurricular clubs, residential life, service organizations, and academic societies are welcome at the AMAM.  We are happy to customize tours or activities for your campus group.  Please contact Colette Crossman, Curator of Academic Programs, at ext. 58645 for more information.

STUDENT DOCENT PROGRAM
Founded in 1990, the AMAM Student Docent Program plays a vital role in allowing the Education Department to serve the general public as well as Oberlin College.  From giving school tours, to presenting Sunday Object Talks, to volunteering at our Tuesday Teas and Community Days, student docents make significant contributions to the life of the Allen Memorial Art Museum.

During Winter Term each year, students study the history of museum education, the AMAM collection, and techniques of interpretation and presentation. During their remaining semesters on campus, they serve as trained docents, giving tours to school children and adults. Docents contribute to the community, enhance their communication skills, and participate in the working environment of the museum. Download more information (PDF file).

If you are interested in applying for this class, please contact Jason Trimmer, Curator of Education, at 775-8671.

WINTER TERM
In addition to our annual Practicum in Museum Education, the AMAM occasionally sponsors group and individual Winter Term projects focused on the collection, museology, or the museum profession. We also welcome student proposals for individual Winter Term projects. To discuss your ideas, please contact Colette Crossman, Curator of Academic Programs at ext. 58645. Current Winter Term offerings can be found here.

STUDENT ASSISTANT POSITIONS
Work-study positions provide Oberlin students the opportunity to help in the Education Office, perform professional research on the collection, or to prepare a museum exhibition. Recent students, working with museum curators, have assisted with exhibitions using a wide range of objects from the collection, including photographs, Japanese prints, and old master and contemporary prints. Others have created finding aids for archival materials and helped with classes in the Print Study Room.

Watch this space for future openings.

RESEARCHING THE COLLECTION
In addition to published collection catalogues, the AMAM maintains a number of archival records useful for academic research. These include curatorial files on every accessioned object and AMAM exhibition, an electronic collections database, and the Eva Hesse Archives.

• Collection Database: The museum is currently upgrading its collections management system with the help of a major federal grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Our new system, once installed, will be fully searchable on-line, providing full information on, and images of, all the objects in our collection. Watch for these exciting new developments in the future.

• Publications: Until our collections database is functional online, much of our collection is searchable through an interactive CD-ROM, Masterworks for Learning: A College Collection Catalogue (1998).  This electronic resource is available through the Oberlin College Library.

The museum has also produced three catalogues of the collection:

• Wolfgang Stechow, Catalogue of Drawings and Watercolors in the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, 1976.
• Wolfgang Stechow, Catalogue of European and American Paintings and Sculpture in the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, 1967. Introduction by John R. Spencer.
• Prints in the Allen Memorial Art Museum: Catalog, compiled by J. Chvostal, 1988. (Unpublished and available for consultation in the Art Library only)

In addition, since 1944 the AMAM has published a scholarly journal, the Bulletin, which contains articles related to exhibitions and works in the collection.

To locate these publications in the library, and for additional guidance on researching objects in the AMAM collection, please click here. The above publications, with the exception of the 1988 print catalog, may also be purchased at the museum sales desk along with select exhibition catalogs.

• Use of Curatorial Files: Students and faculty may request access to the curatorial object files for research purposes by contacting the Curator of Academic Programs at ext. 58645. Appointments must be made at least 1 business day in advance and are limited to one hour, maximum of 10 files per visit. Please know that many of the files contain historical letters and documents and must be handled carefully and only when necessary.

• Eva Hesse Archives: The museum houses the archives of American artist Eva Hesse (1936-70), which include artist’s notebooks, diaries, photographs and letters. To consult material in the Hesse Archives, please contact Colette Crossman, Curator of Academic Programs, at ext. 58645. Appointments must be made at least two weeks in advance. Two of the datebooks in the AMAM collection have been published in a facsimile edition, which is available for purchase from the museum.

• Images for Courses: Some professors have worked with the AMAM to make digital images from the collection available for online viewing in conjunction with Oberlin College courses. The following course pages and thematic groupings are accessible to students:
  
  ARTS 334: Art and Politics - Weimar Germany

ARTH 432: German Expressionism and Modernity

AMAM images are for viewing on the online course page only. They may be saved for personal reference, but may not be reused without permission from the museum. Captions and other information may be frequently updated, and you will only have the most up-to-date data on the objects if you are working directly from the online course page.

For digital images of artworks outside of the AMAM's collection, the Art Department's Visual Resources page may be of assistance.