Students Design Ideas for Harriet Beecher Stowe Center

Posted  4/6/2009
Bookmark and Share
Enlarge Photo
Assistant Professor Natacha Poggio (second from right) and Shannon Burke (far right) of the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center pose with some of the students involved in the exhibit during a March 27 reception at the Stowe Center.
A new exhibit at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, titled Enlivening the Past: Exhibition Design as Storytelling, features work by students in the Visual Communication Design Department of the Hartford Art School and the Cinema Department in the College of Arts & Sciences.

Enlivening the Past is a visual representation of ideas for a new visitor experience at the Stowe Center. Students were challenged to incorporate senses beyond sight and explore new methods of bringing the story of Harriet Beecher Stowe to life. Stowe was an abolitionist and author best known for her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

The exhibit will be available for public viewing in the Visitor Center Gallery through April 30. Visitors are encouraged to comment on the exhibit and the specific interpretive ideas proposed by the students.

During the Fall 2008 semester, Assistant Professor of Visual Communication Design Natacha Poggio challenged her senior design students to create interactive and sensorial exhibit designs meant to help visitors experience the Stowe Center with fresh perspectives. Accompanied by a sound design class taught by Assistant Professor of Cinema Lauren Cook, five groups of design students focused on a theme or story to be expressed through a designed experience complete with a soundscape.

Read about the five projects that the students designed.

"The exhibit of the student projects will help us gather information and visitor reaction. We want to find out what resonates with people and what other ideas the proposed experiences might spark,” said Shannon Burke, director of Education and Visitor Services at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. “Harriet Beecher Stowe was one of the founders of the Hartford Art School – we think she would be delighted that the Stowe Center is working with these faculty and students today."

The Stowe Visitor Center is open Wednesday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Sunday from 12 noon to 4:30 p.m. For more information, call 860.522.9258 ext. 317, email Info@StoweCenter.org, or visit www.stowecenter.org.