The Mellon Foundation has announced its inaugural class of fellows in the Andrew W. Mellon Undergraduate Curatorial Fellowship Program, which provides specialized training in the curatorial field for undergraduate students across the United States from diverse backgrounds. Ten students have been selected for this intensive program, following Summer Academies—consisting of workshops, tours, field trips and networking events with museum professionals—that were held at five partnering museums over the summer. The five participating museums are the Art Institute of Chicago, the High Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The new program is organized through LACMA and funded by a grant of $2,073,000 from the Foundation.
So, if you see these two around the Houston art scene, give them a big congratulations!
Jennifer Cernada is an art history major at Houston’s Rice University. She is a first-generation American from Miami. Jennifer began her studies at Rice with the intent to major in biochemistry and cell biology, but an art history course during her first semester awakened her passion for art. Jennifer’s curatorial mentor is Mari Carmen Ramirez, the Wortham curator of Latin American Art.
Stormy Hamilton is pursuing a B.A. in art at Texas Southern University. Prior to enrolling at TSU, Stormy studied welding and metal fabrication at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. Volunteering at the University Museum at TSU under the guidance of Dr. Alvia Wardlaw inspired Stormy to learn more about art history and the curatorial field. Stormy will be working with curatorial mentor Alison de Lima Greene, curator of contemporary art and special projects, and researching the work of John Biggers, who established the art department at TSU in 1949.