By Jonathan Morales

2023年10月31日

萨克拉门托人艾玛·蒙塔尔巴诺从小就很有艺术天赋，小时候经常去克罗克艺术博物馆。

Years later as a recent college graduate, her work was on display when she walked into 萨克拉门托’s venerable art venue.

“It felt really good,” said Montalbano, who graduated from 萨克拉门托 State in December 2022 with a degree in Studio Art. “Not everyone gets to come out of their undergrad and get to have their art in a museum of that caliber."

蒙塔尔巴诺是近150名萨克州立艺术与艺术史工作室的学生之一，他们在过去两年中合作创作了版画，并于7月27日至10月15日在克罗克展出。 The project, “Estampas:反射,” explored themes and icons highlighted in “Estampas de La Raza,” an exhibit of Chicano/Chicana and Latine art prints also on display at the Crocker this summer.

Another group of students created 互动同伴活动 for 10 of the “Estampas de La Raza” prints in the exhibit. 总之，这些项目让学生有机会了解与大学有着深厚联系的艺术传统，并为看到自己的作品在大型博物馆展出而感到自豪。

“It was really meaningful,” said Associate Professor of Art History Mya Dosch, who organized the exhibit along with Associate Professor of Art Summer Ventis. “We had a reception, and they brought their families and their friends to see their work in the Crocker Museum, which is a taste of what it feels like to be a professional artist and have your work displayed in an important institution like the Crocker."

“Estampas:反射” built on Ventis’ previous work engaging students in the campus’ history with the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF) art collective and the many Chicano/Chicana art prints in the University’s collection. Works by RCAF artists, many of whom were 囊状态 students or faculty, were a major component of “Estampas de la Raza.”

Starting in Fall 2020, when the Crocker approached Dosch and Ventis about an exhibit of student work, Ventis’ printmaking students and Dosch’s art history students discussed the themes in “Estampas de la Raza.” One theme was explored per semester for four semesters, starting with “identity,” then “shared struggle,” “icons,” and “traditions.”

Art history students researched the selected themes to help inform the printmaking students’ art, a collaboration Ventis said benefited both groups. 学生们也被鼓励把自己的身份和经历带到这个项目中。

四个学期后，50幅版画被提供给克罗克博物馆展出。

“It's exciting to see the unique perspectives all the students bring to these themes and then for the students to feel their work is in conversation with work by prominent artists in the main ‘Estampas de la Raza’ exhibit,” Ventis said. “I think it helps them to really feel their status as members of an artistic community.”

To go along with the exhibit, students in Dosch’s Spring 2023 Latin American Art class selected 10 artworks for which to create interactive elements. 例如，对于一幅以移民为主题的版画，学生们想出了一种方法，让观众扫描二维码，将他们带到一个网站，在那里他们可以分享自己的移民故事。

Ventis and Dosch hired student curators throughout the process to document their colleagues’ work, interface with museum staff, and provide feedback to their classmates, giving them important, hands-on experience building an exhibit.

其中一位策展人是Guadalupe Joaquin，他于5月毕业于平面设计专业。 她与学生们合作，利用自己作为第一代墨西哥裔美国人的经历，创造了移民故事互动。

“I think this was a good way to showcase the Latinx community and also have people who are a little bit distanced from it to find a way to see themselves in the artwork,” Joaquin said. “I found it was a way of establishing a meaningful connection between the artist and the viewer.”

Montalbano worked on “Estampas:反射” all four semesters, which meant four of her prints were included in the exhibit. One of them centered on California’s fourth-grade “mission project,” which was criticized for excluding the perspectives of Native Americans. To create the print, she laid text about indigenous ancestors over a “draw with me” image of a mission, the kind a fourth-grader might use for the assignment.

作为展览的一部分，蒙塔尔巴诺在职业上收获颇丰。 她与克罗克的工作人员建立了联系，这使她在博物馆获得了一份实习教师的工作，为当地的小学生提供版画讲习班。

她说，展览本身与她在学生时代学到的东西完全吻合。

"I felt like it really honored the traditions of the 囊状态 printmaking department,” Montalbano said. “We learned a lot about the RCAF but it was great to work on a project that was so connected to the things they were doing and the topics that they were working with.”

A catalog featuring the prints in “Estampas:反射” can be 在网上购买. The interactive activities can be accessed via the 克罗克艺术博物馆网站.