Getty intern brings historian’s training to American arts and crafts pottery exhibition

Chapman University history major Lauren Abel ’13 didn’t know anything about American arts and crafts pottery of the late Victo

rian era when she was asked to plan and design a museum exhibition on – you guessed it – American arts and crafts pottery of the late Victorian era.

But Abel says she knew how to manage the task, thanks to course work in her major, especially “History 398: The Historian’s Craft,” taught by Assistant Professor Alexander Bay.

“That’s where they really start to introduce you to the techniques of how to approach a topic, how to weed out unnecessary information, how to find resources and put together information in a clear and concise way that attracts readers’ attention,” Abel says.

All those skills were instrumental to her this summer as a
Getty Foundation Multicultural Intern
assigned to the Banning Museum in Wilmington, Calif. The final product of Abel’s 10-week paid internship debuted at a special reception Friday, Aug. 17, for the exhibit “The Art that Is Life.” The exhibit featured 30 superb examples of American arts and craft pottery from the legendary companies
Roseville
,
Rookwood
,
Weller
and
Owens
, all loaned to the museum by one of the museum’s patrons.

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