Nestled among the works of famous American artists, Dylan Kahn '16 is assisting the curatorial staff of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) this summer. With funding from the John B. Hurford '60 Center for the Arts and Humanities, the history of art major is working to advance the new education and interpretation goals of the PMA and is helping to prepare some of its upcoming exhibits.

"It is perhaps most interesting for me to work in an environment comprised mostly of art experts," says Kahn."Not only am I given the ability to observe how art historians and museum specialists operate in the professional realm, but I'm also being given the opportunity to meet an incredibly diverse and interesting group of people."

While most of Kahn's week is spent in the curators' offices, the PMA intern program also includes a museum studies colloquim, in which he's learning about the museum's vast collections and various departments.

One of his primary projects is preparing interactive displays for the PMA's presidential china, a collection of the White House's dinnerware, which will go on permanent display later this year. "Visitor accessibility has become an important dimension of the museum's vision," says Kahn,"and I'm extremely excited that I'm helping the institution work towards realizing this goal." The project, while not the primary focus of his own research, does relate to his larger interest in American artwork, which he says was sparked by a Swarthmore course, "American Art and the Armory Show,” focused on the 1913 exhibition that brought modern art art to the United States.

During his time at Haverford, Kahn has worked as a student manager of the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, and he is looking forward to using the skills he is gaining this summer to benefit the gallery next year.“Taking what I've learned and applying it elsewhere—both presently and later in my career—may prove to be the most important dimension of my work this summer," explains Kahn.

Next semester, he will begin writing his thesis on a painting of Bryn Mawr's second president, M. Carey Thomas, by John Singer Sargent.“As an intern in the American Curatorial Department at the PMA, I've had the opportunity to study Sargent and his contemporaries in more depth,” says Kahn. "My exposure to one of the country's best American art collections has given me a more profound understanding of Sargent's world and the state of the art world at the turn of the 20th century."

—Jack Hasler '15

"Summer Centered" is a series exploring our students' Center-funded summer work.