Learning by Looking: Charlene Shang Miller Helps Students Engage with Artworks at SCMA

Charlene Shang Miller’s passion for art goes back to her childhood in Chicago, when her parents would take her and her four siblings on frequent visits to museums.

Miller, who began work this summer as associate educator for academic programs at the Smith College Museum of Art (SCMA), says her job focuses on “empowering students, faculty and museum audiences” to find their own meaning in the artworks in the collection. Miller came to Smith after a dozen years as a museum educator for the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Conn. She also worked as an assistant curator of education for the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pa., and at other art institutions across the country. Miller, who earned a bachelor’s degree in the history of art from the University of Michigan and master’s degree in art history and museum studies from the University of Southern California, says she is excited to be SCMA’s “point person on collaborating with students and faculty.” Here’s what else she had to say about her work at the college.

What drew you to the position at SCMA?

Miller: “I’ve always had an interest in working with faculty and students. That was just a small part of my work at the Wadsworth Atheneum and the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. The position at Smith really spoke to my interest in being at a teaching museum where the main audience is students and where there is opportunity to collaborate with faculty.”

How do you work with students and faculty at Smith?

Miller: “My primary responsibility is to engage students with the museum’s collection and exhibitions. I work with faculty to create opportunities for students to interact with the art—to stop, look and think critically about works of art in the context of their coursework. Sometimes, I’m the person who collaborates with faculty in thinking about the stories these objects can tell and how we can encourage deep looking at these works of art. Other times, I am the facilitator, engaging the class in close looking and interpreting. I also advise faculty who are leading self-guided class visits. And I manage a teaching gallery on the museum’s lower level that offers the opportunity to bring out works of art and put them on display for class use and course assignments.”

What types of classes are using the collection?

Miller: “They are not only art and art history. There are also a significant number of students working in other disciplines, including history, English, sociology, environmental studies and policy, language and literature and German studies. I have yet to work with a math class, but I know that the museum has worked with those classes as well. It’s really across the board, and that speaks to the power of art to make connections across disciplines.”

Can you give an example of a class project you worked on this semester?

Miller: “Professor Payal Banerjee in sociology contacted us about her first-year seminar on “The Bollywood Matinee.” We started a conversation, and I delved into the class content as described in her syllabus. We don’t have a specific collection focusing on Bollywood at the museum, so we talked about broader themes and issues relating to the class-gender roles, India as a place for artistic inspiration and audience reception. Working with my colleagues in the Cunningham Center for the Study of Prints, Drawing and Photographs, we identified historical photographs, works by artists using India as their subject matter, and also works by contemporary artists focusing on women’s bodies and gender that students interpreted and talked about in the context of the class.”

How do you use visual learning strategies in working with students and other museum visitors?

Miller: “A visually literate viewer brings their own meaning to the artwork. For every person, that process can be different. It’s important to recognize that a work of art does not have just one meaning—what can be a challenge to one viewer is a respite to others. The job of the museum is to offer various ways for people to develop the skills for sustained looking, thinking and interpretation. That means taking a moment to stop and look in a culture where we’re constantly bombarded with visual images.”

How has SCMA’s gallery reinstallation changed how people view the collection?

Miller: “It’s been exciting for me to come in and experience the fruition of the first phase of that project. I so appreciate the approach that the museum took in seeking insights from faculty and students. It’s a very thoughtful reorganization grounded in the mission statements of both the museum and the college, as well as the museum’s interpretive plan, which guides our display of the collection and related programming. The changes include new juxtapositions and the framing questions that provide new access points to works of art. There are also new “Encounters” spaces that provide different ways for people to engage with the objects. I’m looking forward to being part of the second phase this year, which will include reinstallation of the contemporary art collection and a new gallery to exhibit Asian art.”

What have you learned about SCMA’s collection over the past semester?

Miller: “For me, it’s been a joy getting to know this collection. Spending my own time in sustained looking, learning and contemplation of the art is important. There are objects that put me in awe and challenge me. I love to walk around the corner and realize, ‘Wow! I can’t wait to spend time looking at this painting.’ I’m learning what’s in storage and what’s on view. I’m learning and experiencing art right along with the students and faculty. How lucky am I?!”