Mission & Objectives

The Curating and Public Scholarship Lab (CaPSL) is an experimental gallery where faculty, researchers, students, and community and museum partners translate academic scholarship into on-site and mobile exhibitions. Our mandate is to promote exhibitions as a form of public scholarship; to create cutting-edge exhibitions; to provide leadership on research and pedagogy related to museums and public scholarship; and to nurture a community of affiliates committed to the ongoing exploration of museums and curating in response to social issues. By public scholarship, we mean linking scholarship to issues of public consequence in broadly accessible forms. Our exhibitions, research, and pedagogical projects are often participatory, connected to stakeholder communities, and invite public engagement. We also explore and experiment with how new technologies can contribute to public engagement with museums in physical and virtual ways.

CaPSL’s activities include mounting exhibitions, convening workshops and symposia, sponsoring public lectures, and aiding faculty in introducing exhibition-making and theory into graduate and undergraduate classrooms.