UpStArt – The Art of the Question
+ By Terese Schlachter
To enter the Elizabeth Myers Mitchell Art Museum (/m) is to become enveloped in an inspired version of the quiz show Jeopardy! The answer lies, always, in the form of a question.
The museum occupies a 1,500-square-foot space in Mellon Hall at St. John’s College in downtown Annapolis, just a block away from the Maryland State House. It is designed and curated to pose a theoretical or philosophical pondering for visitors to mull as they mosey from one artwork to the next. It’s a space where one might delicately step over a wave of sea-green Life Savers candies or become enlightened by a circular grouping of desk lamps.
“I’m trying to capture the culture of the place, the learning environment,” says museum director Peter Nesbett, who arrived in 2022 with Jenny Cawood, the museum’s manager. His mission was to reopen the space after its three-year pandemic-induced shutdown and to bridge the “town-gown” divide, that is, to program content to draw students in as well as appeal to the greater Annapolis community.
The curriculum at St. John’s College fosters an interdisciplinary, liberal arts education. Students pore over great writings that, according to the program statement, “illuminate the persistent questions of human existence.” They come to the seminar table bolstered to opine and inquire, guided by tutors whose roles are to ask questions and facilitate discourse.
“I’m doing the same thing in the museum,” explains Nesbett. Each exhibition comes with a query. A recent one, entitled Lost at Sea (Ulysses), asked, “Can art save us?” That’s where the Life Savers came in. Visitors were encouraged to sample the candy.