HWS News
27 February 2023 • Arts HWS Welcomes New Visual Arts Curator
Meghan Jordan is eager to collaborate with student artists, art historians and aspiring curators as she joins Hobart and William Smith as the Clarence A. Davis ’48 Visual Arts Curator.
As the new Clarence A. Davis ’48 Visual Arts Curator, Meghan Jordan oversees the Collections of Hobart and William Smith and directs the Davis Gallery at Houghton House, the exhibition space of the Colleges’ Department of Art and Architecture.
“I am very excited to join the HWS community,” says Jordan, who notes that the collaborative, student-oriented aspects of her position are what attracted her most to the Colleges. “I can assist in teaching students the skills they would need to excel in a career in art galleries and museums. I look forward to partnering with students to install exhibitions in the Davis Gallery or write accompanying text, and teaching students in an internship course how to catalog artwork using the HWS art collection.”
Named in recognition of the generosity of Clarence A. “Dave” Davis Jr. ’48, the Davis Gallery is an academic resource of Hobart and William Smith intended to immerse students in visual culture. The gallery has six shows each year beginning with a faculty exhibition and ending the year with a student exhibition. In between, a variety of artists and architects are invited to show their work, and an exhibition from the Collections of Hobart and William Smith Colleges is staged. Through the exhibitions, the gallery makes works of art accessible both to support the Colleges’ educational goals and to enrich the community at large, providing an environment in which to examine the role of art and architecture in shaping, embodying and interpreting cultures.
“My mind is racing with the potential learning opportunities because providing students with hands on experience is a key to their future success in the art world,” Jordan says. “I have had a few mentors in museums that I interned or worked at who believed in me and gave me opportunities that have led me to where I am today. I hope to be that person for students and see them engage with art, grow their careers and succeed.”
Jordan holds an M.A. in art history from the University of Arizona and a B.F.A. in professional photographic illustration from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Before joining HWS, she served as a curatorial associate at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, N.Y. She has also worked at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Ariz., and previously interned at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Learn more about art, architecture and museum studies at HWS:
Davis Gallery | Critical Museum Studies | Art History | Studio Art | Architectural Studies
