Alexander Brier Marr’08 in the Saint Louis Museum of Art安德鲁·W. Mellon Foundation Assistant Curator of Native American Art at the 圣路易斯艺术博物馆, 艺术历史 major Alexander Brier Marr’08 has achieved a goal: to work in an encyclopedic art museum in order to expand the narratives of 艺术历史 in the United States.

“Throughout my studies at 十大菠菜台子, I pursued opportunities to work with its museum collections. That included holding a work study position in the 莱特艺术博物馆 大四的时候.”

Classroom experiences were also fundamental to his career development. Faculty modeled intellectual curiosity and passion, and focused topics courses were pivotal.

“我上的课程 现象学, 史学 of French sociology, and the 宗教人类学 were as valuable for theories and histories as they were for demonstrating how professors saw the world, 承担自己的工作, and identified material that continuously renewed their sense of wonder.”

Mentorship and grounding in the liberal arts also proved critical to his development as an intellectual and 博物馆研究 专业.

Professor of 艺术历史 Jo Ortel’s mentorship and the 艺术历史 major were transformational. By Alex’s third year at Beloit, he knew that he wanted to continue his studies. The question was whether to pursue a master’s degree or a PhD. Jo helped him understand that doctoral, interdisciplinary studies made sense: He had a firm grounding in 艺术历史 and had gained practical museum experience.

Opportunities to engage with the world beyond Beloit also informed Alex’s decision to pursue a career in the museum world rather than academia.

“For two summers, I interned at the Roger Brown Study Collection 在芝加哥. A member of the Chicago Imagists artist group, Brown not only was an inveterate collector, but lived with his collection in his home. Brown helped inspire the interest in folk and outsider art that led me to write an honors thesis under 快乐贝克曼’s supervision on the paintings of the self-taught Wisconsin artist 尼克Englebert.”

It was a seminar in contemporary Native American art taught by Jo Ortel, 然而, that convinced Alex that Native American art studies was a growing field requiring more research, 展览, 出版, 以及专业知识.

“All of the questions I had been asking across the curriculum came to bear in that seminar. Among the speakers Jo invited to class was the eminent artist and curator 杜鲁门劳. She also took us to lectures off campus. I was shown art that could sustain a lifetime of asking, learning, and doing.”

The interest in Native American art sparked at Beloit led to graduate studies. As a PhD student in Visual and Cultural Studies at the 罗切斯特大学, Alex held fellowships sponsored by the National Museum of Natural History, Center for the Advanced Study in Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art, and the 波特兰艺术博物馆 在俄勒冈州. Additionally, he contributed to a 出版 about the 解冻集合 at the Fenimore Art Museum in New York.

“Through academic and museum training, I have come to specialize in collections of historic Indigenous art. My job allows me to practice the skills and knowledge that I began to develop at Beloit.”

Reflecting on his education at Beloit, Alex notes that focused time with specialists in a range of disciplines was critical for his pursuit of interdisciplinary doctoral studies and his choice of a career in a field where knowledge is constantly being generated and methods are deeply collaborative.

“The ability to focus deeply on specific topics in seminars and then identify connections across the curriculum helped me to pinpoint questions that motivated my research through graduate school and continue to fuel my work today. What is the difference between language and visual signification? How does identity function in the visual world? How have people across space and time responded to shared experiences and materials in different ways? Relationships with faculty were the fundamental experiences that shaped my career.”