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The Dartmouth
July 12, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Hood gives students ‘Space'

04.25.11.Arts.Gallery2
04.25.11.Arts.Gallery2

"A Space for Dialogue: Fresh Perspectives on the Permanent Collection from Dartmouth's Students," now in its ninth year, allows Hood interns to curate their own installation around a theme of their choosing, using works of art from the Hood's permanent collection.

"Everything the Hood Museum has is open to you as free game," Maria Fillas '11, this year's Levinson programming intern, said. "That was one of the most exciting parts of the project and also the most terrifying because there are just so many pieces to choose from."

Interns write labels and brochures and deliver gallery talks about their exhibitions to help museum patrons become familiar with the works.

The current "Space for Dialogue" installation, "Okeanos: International and Contemporary Reflections on the Sea," was designed and produced by Fillas. The exhibition explores the theme of the ocean and the powerful emotional response that an ocean can inspire in the viewer.

"The ocean is this universal thing that people have an attachment to for various reasons," Fillas said. "I thought that doing a show based on this universal concept would be something appealing to a lot of people."

The pieces in "Okeanos," on display in the Hood's entrance, vary in medium to create the sensation of waterscapes. A piece by Yves Klein uses sponges, pebbles and resin on a wood panel to create "Blue Monochrome Sponge Relief."

The exhibit also includes Hioroshi Sugimoto's gelatin silver print "Marmara Sea, Silivli," and Jennifer Moller's single-channel video projection "Seas."

"I toyed with maybe 10 to 20 themes, ranging to scarification in art or female nudity, but I ended up seeing the Jennifer Moller piece, the video installation depicting the sea," Fillas said. "I just fell in love with it."

Fillas will discuss her exhibit this Friday in the Hood.

Past intern-curated exhibitions include "Aerial Perspectives: Grounded in an Infinite Landscape," designed by Natalia Wrobel '11; "A Man-Made Icon: The Gibson Girl," planned by Sarah Peterson '10; and "Hand in Glove: Representations of the Glove as a Fetish Object," curated by Thisbe Gensler '10.

Dylan Leavitt '11, the Kathryn Conroy intern of programming, will next curate a "Space for Dialogue" show centered around late 18th and early 19th century caricature art from England and France. Her installation will be on display at the Hood in July 2011.

According to Leavitt, the "Space for Dialogue" program at the Hood creates opportunities for students that are incredibly difficult to find elsewhere.

"It's really such a neat experience for an intern to have a gallery space it's virtually unheard of," Leavitt said. "Since the Hood Museum is associated with the College, it's just great they are able to lend themselves to more educational programs like this."

Outside of curatorial work, the Hood's programming interns work to organize and publicize events so that the arts can be made prevalent and accessible to members of the Dartmouth community, as well as the general public.

"The programming internship is just really a combination of publicity, public relations, events planning and museum education," Leavitt said.

Leavitt said she has thoroughly enjoyed publicizing and creating events for the Hood.

"I love being able to constantly learn new things and new information about the exhibitions that come through," she said. "There's just such a diverse group of exhibitions."

Leavitt worked with Fillas to create a new series of events that aim to make the Hood's collections more easily accessible and intriguing to students.

"Just being able to share my love of art with my classmates, especially in my senior year, has been something that's been really rewarding and really fun," Fillas said.

This fall, Fillas and Leavitt decided to launch a new programming initiative called "Look at the Hood," an outreach program that hosts "night socials" social gatherings at the Hood on a given Tuesday or Thursday night and campus-wide student parties, such as the Fluxus student party held on April 22.

"As programming interns, not only do we come up with programs for undergraduates to engage with the art, but we also are able to do all of the publicity work and really make programming ours," Leavitt said. "We really wanted to make an opportunity for students to have an easy way to access the art and also be able to socialize."