FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!

Today was my first day of school!

I can truly and honestly say that I absolutely love it. 100%. I could not imagine myself doing anything else I was more excited about. YAY! All the people in the program are passionate, driven, hard-working, smart, accomplished, and friendly! Everyone is there with a purpose and the teachers are incredibly knowledgable and passionate about what they do. 

We have two international trips, one to Venice and the other to Paris (each about 5 days - woohoo!) and there will be numerous visits to manors in the countryside similar to Downtown Abbey (or so the professor said while laughing). 

We have lectures in the morning (10:15-11:45) by visiting lecturers from around the UK, distinguished academics and notables from various parts of the art world. The afternoon will be filled with seminars led by our professors on various topics such as how to literally handle objects (in the handbook is actually a small section on how to hold paintings - always with both hands, if you were curious), becoming well-versed in models of classification, analysis, and assessment of objects, cataloguing work (aka what you find on museum placards and in auction house catalogues), critical analysis of objects within a cultural, social, and ideological context, historiography, as well as "gallery and curatorial studies." We will learn about the significance of display in both galleries and museums (why is an object on a pedestal, in a glass case, or hung a certain way? what about the lighting? are the paragraphs of text on the walls effective or unreadable?) and learn to write curatorial reports. Among many other things. And at the end, another thesis!

Trips behind the scenes at the plethora of museums in London and England at large will also occupy our afternoons. 

Here's to an incredible year!