A Newfound Confidence for Gallery Curation

Astrid Bridgwood ’24, a Charlotte native with a deep appreciation for the local artistic and cultural scene, recently conducted a gallery apprenticeship where she helped with the curation of the Indigenous Voices of the Carolinas exhibition. The exhibition, which will run through December 8 in the Bank of America and Loevner Galleries of the Sarah Belk Gambrell Center for the Arts and Civic Engagement, features art by and about Indigenous Peoples from the Lumbee, Eastern Band of Cherokee, Catawba, Coharie, and Haliwa-Saponi tribal nations.

“Through this experience, I was excited to discover that curation and gallery shows can be a way to explore and showcase voices of marginalized populations both in Charlotte and beyond,” said Bridgwood. “Dr. Siu Challons-Lipton introduced me to every step of a show’s process from ideation to development to hanging.”

Bridgwood’s practicum as a gallery apprentice included helping draft a preliminary land acknowledgment statement for the campus as well as a curatorial statement for the galleries.

“This apprenticeship has given me a newfound excitement for curation and a level of confidence in my work as a burgeoning student curator,” she said. “After Queens, I hope to pursue post-graduate education in Art History and Museum Studies, with the eventual goal of becoming a professor of Art History myself. Given this recent experience, however, I am looking for work in the gallery spaces of Charlotte and beyond.”

For Bridgwood, this is only the beginning of experience with curation. She hopes to continue to showcase work that “speaks to all walks of life, not just the limited (often Eurocentric) perspectives many envision when they think of Art History.”

The Indigenous Voices of the Carolinas exhibition is open to visitors during gallery hours of 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays through Thursdays and 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. on the first and third Saturday of each month through December 8.