Advanced art history students in assistant professor Emily Burns’ classes will get a hands-on look at the world of art curation and have a unique experience for their portfolios using the collections of Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Auburn University. The students will research, curate and present on a two-part exhibition in the Chi Omega-Hargis Gallery during the spring semester.

The first exhibition, “Strokes of Nature: Plein Air Painting in the 19th Century” opens March 23 and runs through April 8. The students will present an art talk at 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 29 at the museum.

arly nineteenth-century landscapes in France and the United States were often begun outdoors through plein-air sketches and finished in the studio. Industrialization and urbanization were two contributing factors that prompted artists to venture into nature to paint local light and color. The implied grounding of the artist in a landscape invites the viewer to adopt the same perspective, whether it be surveying a pastoral landscape or becoming ensconced in a thick forest. This exhibition argues that the practice of painting outside made an impact on approaches to painting.