AVPA Students Use Behind-the -Scenes Look to Help LHS Art Gallery

For Lancaster High School Academy of Visual and Performing Arts students in the Gallery Internship program, learning about the inner workings of a gallery is just as important as the artwork itself.

Student interns recently had a unique opportunity to see the behind-the-scenes operations of the Burchfield Penney Art Center at Buffalo State College. An innovative partnership with Graduate Professor Kathy Shiroki allowed the group to get a view of the museum that not many get to see.

“We were given a tour no other students and very few people have had access to. We were able to see the archives, the inner offices and understand how a curated museum works. We were incredibly privileged to have this opportunity,” LHS Teacher Ann Perry-Smith said. “It opened a new mindset, going to a museum and turning your focus to the method of hanging, tags, placement of the art and not really the art itself.”

The students will take what they learned and apply it to developing a mission statement as well as plans and upcoming shows for the LHS Art Gallery.