Interview Column
This week, JustArts sat down with Sarah Horn '16,
leader of the Student Committee for the Rose Art Museum, and talked about the group's plans for the semester.
JustArts: For those who are unfamiliar with SCRAM, would you please tell us a bit about what you do?
Sarah Horn: We're the Student Committee for the Rose Art Museum. So basically the point of the organization is to get the student body of Brandeis to come into the Rose and see the various exhibitions and also participate in a lot of the programs that we have.
JA: What has changed about the club over the duration of your time with it?
SH: Actually a lot in the past year. Previously, it was a smaller group of people who were mostly very associated with the museum. This is the first year that we went to the activities fair. We are very open to welcoming people who might not be Fine Arts majors but [are] very interested in art. We are open to a lot more types of people around campus, which is the point of the organization.
JA: How do you think that what you guys have been doing has changed Brandeis?
SH: Well, I would hope that it's opened people up to the possibility that you don't have to be an "art" person to enjoy a museum. The Rose is free, and something that I really like to do is just walk in for a few minutes, look at a piece, and walk out. You don't have to go and read about every piece and spend a long time in the museum, so we're really hoping to open that up to people ... We'd like to do a lot of cross-genre educational and social programs to get people who, maybe, are science people or math people interested in things that are going on in the art world.
JA: What can we look forward to seeing from SCRAM this semester? Any special events coming up?
SH: First of all, the opening [of the Rose] is the 17th. The [Andy] Warhol show is going to be amazing-I've seen it-It's wonderful. In the fall, we work with the museum to do the student loan collection.
So basically, we allow students to loan works of art from the Rose collection... out to put in their dorm rooms for the year ... Right now, we're planning a [first-year]-oriented event at the Rose, like a mixer, something to get the first-years involved and have them see the collection a bit.
JA: What has been your favorite memory of working with SCRAM?
SH: We do an annual event called SCRAM Jam, which is like a party in the Rose. It was my first semester, I had just started to meet these really great art people and learn about the community.
I was dancing with my friends in the middle of all these amazing works of art-that showed me why it was so important to get so many people into the Rose, because it doesn't have to be an art thing, you know, you can have a dance.
JA: Can you talk briefly about the Warhol exhibit? I'm so excited for it!
SH: It's in the Foster Gallery and 80 percent of the exhibition is from the Rose's own collection. It showcases how influential the Rose collection is, and we're all very excited about it. We were gifted a collection of Polaroids that Warhol took, and a lot of those are up on view. Our Brandeis Warhol is up on view, and the rest of the series as well. There's Warhol wallpaper up, which is special - you can't get it unless you're a museum, basically.
We have a very important Warhol, from his "Disaster" series, and an "Uncle Sam" that's up. And then there's some later photography and prints that were all done. I could talk about it forever. I think it's a great thing for the Rose, and it will bring in a lot of people who might not know a lot about art, but they know who Warhol is-they know the Campbell's soup cans, the pop art. It's a really exciting opportunity, especially for SCRAM, because our mission is to get students involved in the Rose, to have a bunch of different people come in and have different discussions about art and interact with the space in the way they want to.
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