MMAC and UM

The MMAC offers a variety of ways for UM students to get involved. Volunteering, work-study, or interning at the museum offer students a wonderful opportunity to learn about art, how a museum runs, and much more. Volunteers help with various activities during events such as openings and tours, provide clerical and receptionist duties during office hours, assist with cataloging, and provide assistance for installation and de-installation of exhibitions. For-credit internships are offered through the School of Visual and Media Arts on a semester basis.

If you wish to become a volunteer, are looking for work study hours or an internship, contact us at 406-243-2019 or by email at museum@umontana.edu.

Students Teaching Students

Students Teaching Students is a partnership between the MMAC, the School of Visual and Media Arts, and the UM Writing Program in which all students enrolled in Writing 101 and 201 at UM have the opportunity to reflect upon and write about the art on view at the museum. For the majority of the writing students, this is their first visit to the museum. Upper-level students in art and art history introduce these students to MMAC’s holdings as they lead their peers through the museum galleries.

Here are examples of student writing on the work of Stephanie Frostad in her recent show:

This exhibit reveals some of the more intimate struggles of humankind such as loss, famine, etc. And yet the exhibit also sheds light on other concepts such as time and love. There are timeless human experiences within the paintings, ones that have revealed themselves time and time again throughout history. This exhibit did a remarkable job of representing these timeless concepts through various forms of symbolism.

I consider myself to be fairly literal in the sense that unless I have someone with more expertise in art explain the deeper meaning behind a painting, I often miss some of the important symbolism within it. I appreciated the art student’s insight and knowledge regarding this exhibit. I learned how much symbolism is key to a piece’s meaning. As with the popular saying, “a picture contains a thousand words.”