Director's Letter
In his biography of the celebrated sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Filippo Baldinucci wrote the following in describing some of Bernini’s drawings: “[O]ne notes a marvelous symmetry, a great sense of majesty and a boldness of touch that is really a miracle.” We were fortunate enough to live with one of Bernini’s drawings over the past academic year, a red chalk study of a seated male figure lent to us by Princeton University Art Museum. In this relatively small object, we see Bernini in a two-dimensional mode just as we also see an artist continuing to work hard on his craft, studying the live model to improve his understanding of the human form. By encountering this lesser-known side of Bernini’s artistry, we are invited to appreciate that there is always more to know, perhaps even things that will alter our already-informed opinions and understandings.
The variety of exhibitions and programs that we present hopefully indicates our openness to a range of preferences in terms of aesthetic experience and ideological inclination. The past year included an exhibition of Italian drawings from Princeton’s collection, a long-overdue presentation of the career of mid-century painter June Harwood, and a rigorous reframing of Cahuilla basketry given to the college over ninety years ago, as well as a site-specific installation of soft sculptures designed to grow edible or medicinal plants. These projects participated in dialogues carried out across our building in a spotlight on contemporary abstract painting; commissioned new works by contemporary Native artists Weshoyot Alvitre, Gerald Clarke Jr., and Emily Clarke; and presentations of extant work by Courtney Leonard and Cara Romero. The drawings from Princeton found an elegant foil in an installation of drawings from our collection intermingled with those on long-term loan from the collection of Jack Shear. These projects also allowed us to recognize the value of teachers and mentors.
The presentation of Continuity: Cahuilla Basket Weavers and their Legacies emerged from an intentional and sustained partnership with Cahuilla, Tongva, and Apache elders in our community. These efforts were led by our guest curator and visiting professor Dr. Meranda Roberts. Traditional Native American cultural items represent the foundational works in our collections. Our stewardship of items such as these, which hold profound spiritual significance for their descendants, continues to evolve as we learn more about our own institutional history. Wendy Cheng’s essay in the Continuity exhibition publication brought this history forward so powerfully. Through these and other ongoing efforts we seek greater understanding of how we may contribute to the visibility and strength of Native American culture. We recognize that we have much more work to do in this arena, and we are determined to continue our efforts.
The two drawings exhibitions we celebrated in the spring of 2024 provided an important occasion to highlight our mentorship both for our many undergraduate interns and in our capacity as hosts of the AllPaper Seminar. The concurrent opening of these projects allowed us to manifest a true festival of drawings, made especially dynamic through the coordinated opening of Day Pages, an exhibition of contemporary drawings at the Chan Gallery in Studio Art Hall. We were honored by the presence of so many enthusiasts in the world of works on paper—colleagues from local museums, avid collectors, and practicing artists. I was especially moved by the grace and eloquence of one of my personal mentors, a guiding light in the works on paper field, Suzanne Folds McCullagh. Suzanne’s generosity of spirit continues to inspire all those fortunate enough to share space with her. Welcoming Suzanne to the Benton also reinforced the importance of our work in training a new generation of museum professionals.
Our efforts as teachers, mentors, cultural caretakers, and community builders continue to thrive with a growing base of partners and benefactors. Last August we launched the Friends of the Benton program, a grassroots initiative to recognize supporters who share our commitment to teaching, creative study, and arts education for all. As a teaching museum we proudly provide a robust suite of first-hand art experiences entirely free of charge to all who cross our threshold. The Friends of the Benton help ensure we keep our doors open to all and as philanthropic partners, Friends are offered unique opportunities to get to know the collections and our staff behind the scenes.
We conclude what has been an undeniably difficult year with the unwavering conviction that art of all places and times has the ability to expand our capacity for complexity, our appreciation of nuance, and our wonder in learning that our assumptions may be ill founded. If Baldinucci found small miracles in the drawings of Bernini, we too seek the miracles of visual and sensory experience that may change us in unanticipated ways. I have taken great comfort over the last several months in the mutual support that our museum team has extended to one another. We are indeed united in acknowledging that the strength of our collaborative efforts relies on our tolerance for difference and disagreement. We hope that the Benton continues to offer a space for people of different political, religious, and philosophical viewpoints to coexist and indeed learn from one another. The year ahead offers opportunities for further institutional growth and meaningful service.
Victoria Sancho Lobis, Sarah Rempel and Herbert S. Rempel ’23 Director, Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College
Strategic Plan Update
We have reported the fundamental planks of our current strategic plan, and I am pleased to say that we are making dramatic progress toward completion of that plan.
Developed our visitor services team
Established a student-centered museum club
Launched a student-led gallery talk series
Offered workshops to guide faculty in using our collections
Completed major enhancements of our collection database and related web presence
Created a jointly authored staff handbook
Realized our first off-site staff retreat
In the year ahead, we are excited to continue to integrate our collections and exhibitions, both in terms of content as well as working methods. We are also eager to create more inviting and comfortable spaces for museum visitors in our galleries and outdoor spaces.
On the “inside,” we have started a collection assessment process and will be developing a strategy for future collection growth and refinement. Now fully up and running in our beautiful new space, we look forward to completing the final phase of our current strategic plan so that we can start dreaming about even longer-term goals for the museum and the communities we serve.
Exhibitions
June Harwood: Paintings
August 23, 2023–January 7, 2024
Throughout the fall, the entire museum was devoted to this first career survey of June Harwood (1933–2015), a key but underrecognized figure in the Hard-Edge movement. She developed and refined her signature style of vivid colors and dynamic compositions in the 1960s, always returning to those hallmarks after periods of experimentation. The result of a partnership between the Benton and the June Harwood Charitable Trust, the exhibition also marked the Benton’s acquisition of ten paintings by Harwood, a gift of the Trust. June Harwood: Paintings was accompanied by an extensive catalogue including 102 color plates, a chronology, and six essays.
Rebecca McGrew, former senior curator, with curatorial assistant Li Machado and June Harwood Charitable Trust Curatorial Intern Frances Hayman Sutton ’22, in partnership with the June Harwood Charitable Trust
Tracing the Edge
August 23, 2023–January 7, 2024
A companion exhibition to June Harwood: Paintings, Tracing the Edge brought together leading historical Hard-Edge painters with four contemporary artists based in Southern California whose works expand our notion of what abstraction can be and mean. Jackie Amézquita, Linda Arreola, Aryana Minai, and Kristopher Raos use the tools of abstraction to engage questions of class, spirituality, memory, and politics, set in contrast to the cool formalism of the original Hard-Edge movement.
Nicolas Orozco-Valdivia, curatorial assistant, and Ananya Goel ’24
This exhibition was supported by a grant from the Pasadena Art Alliance.
Frederick Hammersley, Up with in, 1957–58. Oil on canvas. 48 × 36 in. (121.9 × 91.44 cm). Pomona College Collection. Walter and Elise Mosher Memorial Fund, P2007.1.1.
Stitch Field: Alice-Marie Archer’s Agritextiles
February 14–June 23, 2024
Stitch Field, the Benton’s first “living” exhibition, featured the work of Archer, an artist who developed an alternative to the plastic-filled warehouses of plants associated with hydroponic systems: hand-knit fiber sculptures composed of patterns (divots, pockets, rows) suited to the cultivation of specific seed species. Replacing engineered crops with locally occurring plants, the artist selected for this exhibition seeds of local California plants with either edible or medicinal properties, which were then “planted” in the fiber substrate and subsequently sprouted and grew during the course of the installation.
Caroline Eastburn, guest curator
Continuity: Cahuilla Basket Weavers and their Legacies
February 14–June 23, 2024
Continuity presented a selection of Cahuilla baskets housed at the Benton along with their histories and long-standing relationships with their relatives. The exhibition and accompanying catalogue told the story of the importance of reunifying Native collection items with living descendants while also acknowledging the institutional histories that have impacted local Native American communities.
Dr. Meranda Roberts, guest curator
Support for the exhibition was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Infinity on Paper: Drawings from the Collections of the Benton Museum of Art and Jack Shear
February 14–June 23, 2024
This exhibition emerged from the scholarly engagement of the AllPaper Seminar fellows—participants in the Benton’s professional development program—with the works on paper from the exceptional drawing collections of Jack Shear (artist, curator, and President of the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation) and the Benton. Including work by more than 50 artists, the exhibition featured highlights from both collections in a conversational installation that offered a dynamic exploration of drawing in its various media, methods, and open-ended possibilities.
Solomon Salim Moore, assistant curator of collections, with curatorial interns Gala López-Grado Salinas SC ’24 and Kathy Shepherd ’23
Support for this exhibition was provided by collective donor contributions to the Benton's Art and Acquisitions Fund. The AllPaper Seminar was made possible by support from the Getty Paper Project Initiative, and its continuation was supported by the Tavolozza Foundation.
500 Years of Italian Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum
February 16–June 23, 2024
The Princeton University Art Museum’s collection of Italian drawings is renowned for its quality, scope, and scholarly importance. This exhibition, which featured extensive interpretive material, showcased 95 works from the late fifteenth to early twentieth centuries by numerous artists, including Parmigianino, Guercino, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, and Amedeo Modigliani.
Laura M. Giles, Heather and Paul G. Hagga Jr., Class of 1970, Curator of Prints and Drawings at Princeton University Art Museum. Organized at the Benton Museum of Art by Victoria Sancho Lobis, Sarah Rempel and Herbert S. Rempel ’23 Director, and Li Machado, curatorial assistant.
Support for this exhibition was provided by the Eva Cole and Clyde Matson Memorial Fund and The Rembrandt Club of Pomona College and Claremont.
Publications
June Harwood: Paintings
This 336-page casebound book consists of 102 plates and six essays by four authors: Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times art critic; Daniell Cornell, former director of the Palm Springs Art Museum; Rebecca McGrew, former senior curator at the Benton; and Dennis Reed, Trustee of the June Harwood Charitable Trust.
Published by the June Harwood Charitable Trust
June Harwood exhibition booklet and audio guides
With a lead essay authored by Frances Hayman Sutton ’22, the June Harwood Charitable Trust Curatorial Intern, this booklet offers biographical notes and an overview of the principal periods of Harwood’s career. The audio guides—a first for the Benton—give listeners an introduction to Harwood’s Sliver, Colorform, Loop, and Network series, all written and produced by Madeleine Mount-Cors ’23. Transcripts and recordings can be found on the Benton’s website: https://www.pomona.edu/museum/exhibitions/2023/june-harwood
Continuity: Cahuilla Basket Weavers and their Legacies
The exhibition catalogue features more than 50 baskets currently housed at the Benton and analyzes the institutional history of the museum and this collection. The book includes written contributions from exhibition curator Dr. Meranda Roberts (Yerington Paiute and Chicana), Wendy Cheng, Emily Clarke (Cahuilla), and Rose Ann Hamilton (Cahuilla). Artworks were contributed by Weshoyot Alvitre (Tongva), Gerald Clarke Jr. (Cahuilla), and Cara Romero (Chemehuevi).
Foreword by Victoria Sancho Lobis, Sarah Rempel and Herbert S. Rempel ’23 Director of the Benton Design by Amy McFarland, Clean{Slate}Design
Tracing the Edge videos
Videographer and documentarian Noah Rosenberg beautifully captured the essence of the exhibition as well as three of the contemporary artists in Tracing the Edge at work in this “studio visit” series. The full series of four videos can be seen on the Benton's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@bentonatpomonacollege
Caturday
What’s an art museum without a cat calendar? Featuring 12 months of cats in the Benton’s collection, the Caturday calendar proved so purr-fect for Benton supporters that it sold out!
Infinity on Paper: Drawings from the Collections of the Benton Museum of Art and Jack Shear
Written by the participants in this year’s AllPaper Seminar, this booklet offers proposals for exhibitions—and accompanying interpretive texts—based on the two collections featured in the exhibition.
Acquisitions
1064 Total Objects Acquired in 2023
Before 2023: 18,783 objects
After 2023: 19,847 objects
1 Artist book
1 Clothing
2 Paintings
3 Sculptures
6 Collages
6 Pottery
9 Basketry
26 Prints and drawings
1,010 Photographs
Featured Acquisitions
Raymond Pettibon
No title (the opening crazy), 2012
Ink, acrylic, and collage on paper
23 ⅝ × 33 ¾ in. (60.01 × 85.73 cm)
Pomona College Collection, Gift of Jonathan Lethem, P2023.15.2
The Benton is pleased to enhance its existing collection of the work of Pettibon and forge a creative collaboration with the esteemed novelist Jonathan Lethem, Roy Edward Disney ’51 Professor of Creative Writing and Professor of English at Pomona College. Lethem both wrote the text in No title (the opening crazy) and gifted this collage—and several others—to the museum.
Unknown Guatemalan artist
Our commitment to Latin American art extends from the present into the deep past. This tabernacle, an example of “microarchitecture,” captivated visitors in our 2023 exhibition Gilded, Carved, and Embossed: Latin American Art 1500–1800.
Portable Tabernacle with Crucifix, 18th century
Wood and silver20 3⁄16 × 20 1⁄16 × 5 ¾ in. (51.28 × 50.96 × 14.61 cm)
Pomona College Collection, Museum purchase, P2024.5.1a,b
The Space Race Collection
Michael Mattis and Judy Hochberg continue to generously support the expansion of the Benton’s collection of historically significant press images that shape our understanding of the history of the United States.
Unknown photographer
Double exposure of the moon and the Apollo 11 moon rocket, July 1969
Gelatin silver print, wire photograph
8 ⅝ × 7 1⁄16 in. (21.91 × 17.94 cm)
Pomona College Collection
Restricted gift of Michael Mattis and Judy Hochberg, P2023.16.263
Doris Derby
The individual point of view of Derby, a female African-American journalist, adds a personal dimension to the Benton’s already extensive holdings of Civil Rights photography.
Rural Family, Mileston, Mississippi, 1968
Gelatin silver print on paper
12 ⅞ × 8 ⅝ in. (32.7 × 21.91 cm)
Pomona College Collection, Gift of David Knaus, P2023.18
Gerald C. Clarke Jr.
We are delighted to have acquired a suite of prints that reflect our ongoing partnership with Clarke, a local artist and educator who also participated in the Continuity exhibition of 2024.
Branded Print (Native Art), 2020
Branded print on paper
17 13⁄16 × 13 ¾ in. (45.24 × 34.93 cm)
Pomona College Collection, Art Acquisitions and Programs Fund, P2023.9.2
Engagement
Academic Engagement
CLAIRE NETTLETON
Academic Curator
The Benton continues to meet its high-water mark by hosting 100 college-level class visits over the last year, including classes from the Claremont Colleges (90 visits)—from Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Scripps, and Claremont Graduate University—in addition to those from Cal Poly Pomona (7), Mt. San Antonio College (2), and Long Beach City College (1). We also hosted visits from Claremont High School and the Webb Schools, for a total of 102 class visits for the year.
We collaborated with 27 academic departments, reaching across a range of disciplines including sociology, media studies, and computer science. Our artists and curators were actively engaged with our academic community: Alice-Marie Archer invited art students to embed seeds into her towering fiber sculptures; Dr. Meranda Roberts guided arts management students through Continuity; architecture students contemplated the geometric forms of June Harwood; and students and scholars alike studied drawings by Michelangelo and Bernini with Furio Rinaldi, curator of drawings and prints at the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco. We also incorporated collection items into 43 classes—from Kandinsky woodcuts in a Russian and East European cultures course to Gaignard photographs in a class devoted to Black women’s autobiographies.
This year we also took the important step of transferring the leadership of our weekly gallery talk series to students. In addition to giving the talks, students chose the topics and schedule as well as enlisted other students and faculty from diverse backgrounds to deliver the informal 20-minute lectures. With our popular Art|Science Colloquium and Italian Drawings Study Day, we fostered robust discussions among students, faculty, scholars, and local audiences, all in the service of building our Benton community.
Subject areas engaged across institutions:
Africana Studies
Anthropology
Architecture
Art History
Arts Management
Computer Science
Core II
Critical Inquiry Seminar (ID1)
Dance
Design Practice
English
Environmental Analysis
Gender and Women’s Studies
History
Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Latin American Studies
Math
Media Studies
Music
Pacific Basin Studies
Philosophy
Psychology
Religious Studies
Russian and Eastern European Studies
Sociology
Spanish, Latin American, and Caribbean Literatures and Cultures
Studio Art
Program Highlights
SEPTEMBER
Fall Exhibitions Artist Panel and Opening Reception
Featuring Tracing the Edge artists Jackie Amézquita, Linda Arreola, Aryana Minai, and Kristopher Raos
OCTOBER
Creation and Care of Artistic Legacies
Panel discussion with Dennis Reed, Trustee of the June Harwood Charitable Trust; Elizabeth Smith, Executive Director of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation; and Ian White, artist and head of the Charles White Archive
NOVEMBER
From Visible Lenses to Algorithmic Lenses: Biotechnology Meets Contemporary Art
Lecture and workshop by Ken Rinaldo
June Harwood: In Her Time
Lecture by Suzanne Muchnic
DECEMBER
7Cs World AIDS Day
2024
FEBRUARY
Artist Talk: Alice-Marie Archer
Adventures in Collecting Drawings
A conversation with Laura Giles, Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Princeton University Art Museum, and Jack Shear, Executive Director of the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation
Artist Talk: Gerald Clarke Jr. and Emily Clarke
MARCH
It’s Alive!
Art|Science Colloquium
This year more than 100 attendees enjoyed a gallery talk for Stitch Field, a panel with three scholars, a vault tour, and a keynote talk by Giovanni Aloi, an author, educator, curator, and maker who specializes in the representation of nature and the environment in art.
Artist Talk: Weshoyot Alvitre
APRIL
Artist Talk: Cara Romero
Artist Talk: Barry X Ball
MAY
Italian Drawings Study Day
with Furio Rinaldi
Claremont Colleges Partners
7C Adboard as part of Intercollegiate Department of Asian American Studies
Admissions, Pomona College
Alumni and Parent Engagement, Pomona College
Art History Department, Pomona College
Asian American Resource Center, Pomona College
Associated Students of Pomona College
Career Development Office, Pomona College
Chicano Latino Student Affairs
Claremont Graduate University Art Department
Classics Department, Pomona College
Draper Center for Community Engagement
EcoReps at the Sustainability Office, Pomona College
English Department, Pomona College
Gender and Women’s Studies, Pomona College
The Hive
KSPC 88.7fm
McAlister Center for Religious Activities
Music Department, Pomona College
Native American Initiatives, Pomona College
Office of Advancement, Pomona College
Office of Institutional Diversity, Harvey Mudd College
Orientation Committee Student Affairs, Pomona College
Queer Resource Center of the Claremont Colleges
Romance Languages and Literature Department, Pomona College
Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps College
Scripps Press
Student Affairs, Pitzer College
Studio Art Department, Pomona College
Title IX and Campus Advocacy, Resources, Education and Supports (CARES), Pomona College
5C Student Groups and Organizations
5C Art for Liberation
5C Museum of Art Club
5C Muslim Student Association
Asian American Sponsor Program, Scripps College
Latinx Student Union at Pitzer College
Mi Gente, Claremont McKenna College
Native Indigenous Student Union
Scripps Café con Leche
Student-Centered Programs
JUSTINE BAE BIAS
Assistant Director for Engagement
In our “garden” of engagement for local college students, we once again featured a selection of perennials and annuals. Our “perennials” are activities independent of our exhibitions that we have organized now for several years in a row, growing in popularity and momentum each year, while our “annuals” consist of exhibition-specific events tied directly to what’s in our galleries for the academic year. Because there’s not enough space here to detail all our student-centered events, I’d like to point out just a few highlights that illustrate the range of our endeavors.
Among our perennials are the events and partnerships that have earned a permanent place in our programming. We continue to work with the 5C Museum of Art Club, run by our student-centered engagement interns, to keep its 100+ members informed about museum exhibitions and programs, behind-the-scenes tours, and coordinated museum trips—this year to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Getty Center for College Night. We also continue to organize and host 5C student art markets each semester for the benefit of mutual aid student organizations like 5C Art for Liberation. Our eco-friendly fashion show was on our runway again this year, and we worked with the McAlister Center for Religious Activities and the 5C Muslim Student Association in partnership with the Claremont Canopy for the third year in a row to create our “Iftar in a Jar” during Ramadan for more than 60 of our local refugee families.
Our annuals this year centered on the Continuity exhibition, which showcased the living legacy of Cahuilla basket weavers. It was wonderful to see the Native Indigenous Student Union at Pitzer College and students from Pomona’s Native American Initiatives attend the exhibition’s community opening and blessing, and we also hosted a dinner with exhibition artist Cara Romero and Native Indigenous students before her talk in April 2024. And partnering with Professor Riel Bellow’s Native Narratives class, we hosted live music and a film screening.
Finally—and literally—we developed something both annual and perennial: our Native Resource Garden, directly outside our building. We’ll continue to cultivate and tend that garden, as well as our metaphorical garden, so that all students connected with the Benton will flourish.
Community Partners
The Arts Area
California Botanical Gardens
Claremont Art Walk
Claremont Canopy
Claremont Lewis Museum of Art
Claremont Unified School District
The Rembrandt Club of Pomona College and Claremont
Secretly Group/Dead Oceans/Khruangbin
SoCal Museums
Uncommon Good
Community Programs
JUSTINE BAE BIAS
Assistant Director for Engagement
RICH DEELY
K–12 Education Specialist
Judging by the last program of our academic year, we have made great progress in creating activities that our community enjoys. The “Dive into Drawing” series, which featured sessions by four local artists on consecutive Thursdays in May and June 2024, was completely sold out, with full houses for each of the sessions. Many additional programs this year garnered hundreds of visitors—our pop-up thrift shop with artist Michael Decker in December, our second annual Print Pomona Art Book Fair in partnership with The Arts Area in March, and DRAW JAM 2024 in April. We also hosted a botanical drawing class in collaboration with the California Botanical Gardens and our first listening party—at James Turrell’s Dividing the Light—for the Khruangbin album A La Sala.
Our community includes our school system as well, and we worked with area teachers and administrators to integrate the visual arts into school curricula, hosting professional development events for arts educators and a staff development program for Uncommon Good, a local nonprofit that supports youth empowerment. These events—and more—worked in tandem with the Education Outreach activities that served more than 2,000 local schoolchildren.
We were thrilled to launch dedicated programming for Friends of the Benton—museum supporters and aficionados who share our commitment to art education and access for all. In a “behind the scenes” look at the Benton, we hosted a wonderful Salon Series in which our assistant curator of collections, Solomon Salim Moore, took Friends into our vaults and led them through engaging discussions of rarely seen works of art.
We look forward to designing more unique and memorable opportunities for our community and supporters to engage with the Benton and our work in meaningful ways.
Impact
Visitors
NILOFAR NARAGHI
Visitor Services Manager
JUSTINE BAE BIAS
Assistant Director for Engagement
The Friends of the Benton program was established last year. A grassroots initiative to support the mission, vision, and opportunities offered at the Benton, these generous donors enable the museum to provide meaningful ways to engage with art beginning with access, by ensuring free admission to the museum for all.
Total In-Person Visitors
22,316
July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024
13,105
Front-door attendance
5,200
Event attendance
2,337
School programs*
1,674
Class visits
*Both at museum and off-site classrooms.
Total Digital Visitors
470,601
Total pageviews of Benton’s website
Most visited pages of the Benton’s website
Visit: 314,235
Turrell’s Skyspace: 30,337
Homepage: 23,701
Francisco de Goya: 10,041
Exhibitions: 9,690
About: 4,861
Collections: 4,709
Prometheus Mural: 4,338
Events: 4,283
June Harwood: 2,506
Increased Website and Social Media Reach
290%
Increased web page views*
38%
Increased website visitors
37%
Increased Instagram followers
19%
Increased social media reach
*Changes in analytics reporting have resulted in a slight inflation in these figures.
Education Outreach
RICH DEELY
K–12 Education Specialist
This year, the Benton evolved its K–12 offerings while engaging students from neighboring communities. An Education Outreach (EO) team of two remarkable first-year students (Esteban Macias and Jessica Tong, both ’27), and two gifted juniors (Simran Smith and Emily Stoutjesdyk, both ’25) helped us to realize our mission. Providing additional support to our EO team were former teaching interns Georgia Norton de Matos SC ’25 and Ruthie Metcalfe ’25.
EO interns prepared by learning about the museum’s collections, devising art lessons inspired by the June Harwood: Paintings exhibition and teaching the Evolving Landscapes lesson series to fourth graders. Piloted in the school year of 2022–23, the lessons use landscape art to teach fourth graders about the different regions of California. After viewing examples from the Benton’s collection, students create their own environments using colored pencils and paper. The second lesson features California’s industrialization and then challenges students to remake their original landscapes with human interventions drawn with oil pastels.
In the spring of 2024, we highlighted Native perspectives on the collection of Indigenous art housed at the Benton. The exhibition Continuity: Cahuilla Basket Weavers and their Legacies provided a unique opportunity to augment visits with a powerful narrative centered on Cahuilla makers past and present. EO team members worked with staff to reimagine the Native American Collection Study Center program offered to local schools. Under the guidance of Continuity curator Dr. Meranda Roberts (Yerington Paiute/Chicana), interns crafted an exhibition tour that enabled visiting third graders to see the larger implications of the materials derived from the land that Native artists use to make the basketry celebrated in Continuity.
As a student-centered initiative, Benton K–12 programming is entirely taught by college interns. More than 90% of K–12 and related attendance was derived from multi-visit programming, with EO intern team members teaching the same students at least two consecutive lessons during the academic year. With our talented teaching interns, the future of museum education looks bright indeed.
Education Outreach By the Numbers
2337
Total program attendance
1,380
Second and third graders
612
Fourth graders
179
High school students
166
Community audiences
Intern Program
CLAIRE NETTLETON
Academic Curator
As we celebrate the fourth year of our Intern Program, we commend the indispensable (and paid) work of 32 students who were involved in almost every facet of the operations of our museum. These interns participated in our professional development program and were additionally mentored by museum staff. This outcomes-oriented program consists of several sessions per semester that aim to develop research, communication, and industry-specific skills while providing insight into different aspects of museum work through presentations by colleagues from other institutions.
This year, students met with speakers such as curator Laura Giles from the Princeton University Art Museum, career specialist Kerry Martin from Pomona College’s Career Development Office, and provenance expert Sandra van Ginhoven from the Getty Research Institute.
The students gave inspiring presentations on their work this year. Guided by staff supervisors, they collaboratively contributed to the life of the museum in deeply meaningful ways. Interns researched and organized exhibitions; directed the gallery talk series and gave talks; assisted class visits; fostered community partnerships; co-created student-centered and academic programming; developed and taught curriculum for K–12 classes; added to our knowledge of the permanent collection; and selected works for our Salon Series. Additionally, they recruited faculty partners, met with artist Barry X Ball and the Getty Paintings Department, and organized a series of sold-out hands-on drawing sessions.
Academic Programming Intern
Tristen Leone ’26
Collections Management Interns
Giulia Bellon SC ’25
Paloma Garcia PZ ’25
Jack Martin PZ ’25
Elle Propp SC ’25
Skye Tausig PZ ’24
Max Uehara ’25
Community Arts Engagement Interns
Georgia Norton de Matos SC ’25
Nina Owen ’25
Curatorial Interns
Ananya Goel ’24
Gala López-Grado Salinas SC ’24
Ava Monheit PZ ’27
Katherine Shepherd ’23
Corrine Waters PZ ’26
Director’s Office Intern
Dante Christian ’25
Education Outreach Interns
Esteban Macias ’27
Ruthie Metcalfe ’25
Simran Smith ’25
Emily Stoutjesdyk ’25
Jessica Tong ’27
Gallery Talk Directors
Dahlia Locke ’25
Diya Mehta ’24
Clark Louis PZ ’26
Museum Ambassadors
Diana Braghis ’26
Danika Claiborne SC ’23
Anabel Cull PZ ’26
Athanasios Gkoutzinis ’23
Evelyn Hao ’27
Lottie Malkmus ’27
Maya Moore ’26
Matthew (Njoka) Njue ’27
Acadia (Cate) Pesner ’27
Skye Tausig PZ ’24
Giovanni Tovar ’24
Student-Centered Programming & Art After Hours Interns
Brenda Rodriguez ’26
Issi Sanchez ’24
Corina Silverstein SC ’25
Internships at the Benton Museum of Art in the last fiscal year were made possible by:
Aramont Charitable Foundation
Janet Benton ’79 Endowed Fund
Josephine Bump ’76 Curatorial Intern Fund
Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internship Program
June Harwood Charitable Trust
Graham “Bud” ’55 and Mary Ellen ’56 Kilsby Endowment for Student Interns
Edwin A. and Margaret K. Phillips Fund
AllPaper Seminar
Solomon Salim Moore
Assistant Curator of Collections
For the last three years, we have hosted the AllPaper Seminar—a professional development program aimed at emerging curators and artists from diverse backgrounds. Each year, a cohort of twelve participants has gathered to explore introductory and advanced topics on the processes of printmaking and drawing. In June 2024, we concluded the third year of the seminar.
We kicked off the seminar in March 2024 with an overnight stay on the west side of Los Angeles. We began our study day with a visit to the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts at UCLA’s Hammer Museum. There, Luce Curatorial Fellow Jennie Waldow SC ’12 hosted our group in the Center’s study room and led a walk-through of the exhibition Groove: Artists and Intaglio Prints, 1500 to Now. We also visited the Getty Center and the Wende Museum during this first section of the seminar.
In June 2024, our fellows moved into the Mudd-Blaisdell Residence Hall on South Campus for the second part of the seminar: a full week of workshop sessions. Gary Geraths gave a lively landscape drawing workshop down in Pomona’s Wash, and Alex Chappell led a hands-on letterpress printing demonstration at First Floor Press in Honnold/Mudd Library. Our fellows had a deep-dive into matting and framing with Christine Conniff-O’Shea, the former associate conservator for preparation and framing at the Art Institute of Chicago. Additionally, we had special behind-the- scenes sessions at the Huntington Library Paper Conservation Studio, Alto Beta Gallery, and the Charles White Archives, all in the Pasadena area.
To conclude the seminar program, the fellows presented their concepts for an installation that we plan to incorporate into a Spring 2025 exhibition, giving full shape and form to the ideas inspired by their visits and colleagues over their time with us.
Highlights of the AllPaper 2024 Itinerary
Alto Beta Gallery
Charles White Archives
Denison Library Special Collections
First Floor Press
Getty Museum
Grunwald Center Collection at the Hammer Museum
Hamilton Press
Paper Conservation Studio at the Huntington Library
Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery
Wende Museum
Financial Report
Operating Budget
July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024
$1,114,856 Staff Compensation
$129,965 General Operations
$55,366 Student Employment
$149,425 Contract Employment
$101,952 Publications
$338,695 Exhibitions
$161,556 Programs
$24,424 Marketing
$31,725 Collection Care & Research
Operating Budget Total $2,107,964
Operating Budget with Estimated Facilities and Administrative Costs $3,426,510
The estimated facilities and administrative costs shown above are calculated at fifty percent of all direct programmatic costs. This is more than ten percentage points below our federal negotiated rate for factoring indirect costs.
Funding Sources
July 1, 2023 – June 30-2024
Total $2,107,964
$1,061,791 Pomona College Operating Budget
$764,435 Restricted Gifts and Endowed Funds
$273,014 External Grants
$8,724 Museum Revenue