Juxtapositions opens with a reception on April 23 from 3–5 p.m.

Museums and their collections are repositories of memory, community and identity. Our latest exhibition incorporates reflections on these ideas from students at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Juxtapositions: Selections from the Historic Geneva Collections, which was curated by students in the American Studies Department’s Critical Museum Studies class, an introduction to the history and theory of museums.

The primary focus of the course is museums’ role in colonization, memory-making, nation-building, and the opportunities museums offer for social advocacy. Students spent the semester researching and selecting objects from the Historic Geneva collection under the theme of juxtaposition. Choosing two objects, they examined how the objects together reflect issues in history and collecting.

Juxtapositions: Selections from the Historic Geneva Collections will be on display at the museum from April 23 – May 24, 2025.