With the school year coming to a close, and the departure of the artists in residence, the students of Carol Solomon’s Curatorial Praxis class continue to progress in the making of the Memory || Place || Desire exhibit.

Recently, the class met with Matthew Seamus Callihan, Associate Director of the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery and Campus Exhibitions, to discuss the setup of the gallery.  Now, a group of students from the class have been working on several possible layouts using Google SketchUp.  The application helps students to create an accurate model of the exhibit space, and allows them to rearrange the gallery’s moveable walls and even import scaled art works onto the walls. Using SketchUp, the students are able to present a lifelike version of what the gallery space will actually look like when all of the works are in it, and thus many issues involving space can be realized in this digital format before the final set up is devised.

While the class has been educating each other on each of the artists that have works in the exhibition, Professor Solomon has been working on a satellite exhibition: Khamsa: Amulets of North Africa.  The exhibit features several Khamsas—literally meaning five—or Hands of Fatima, which will be on display.  Khamsas are hand shaped amulets, typically used in jewelry or wall hangings as a sign of good luck and protection. These amulets have Jewish and Muslim origins, and the Khamsa is referred to the hand of Fatima in Islam (named after Mohamed’s daughter) and the hand of Mariam or Mary in Judaism and Christianity.  This exhibit will coincide with Memory ||Place || Desire and will be located in Magill Library’s Alcove Gallery.