University Faculty

The Education, Engagement and Learning unit organizes instruction and co-learning, research and outreach opportunities. Faculty develop class sessions that connect to each course’s teaching goals. Working with original works of art can help focus the study of a cultural or historical moment. Across disciplines, museum visits help students develop observation and description skills, methods for working with a primary source and critical thinking. The museum provides a spark of innovative disruption, connecting faculty and students through a new learning environment.

To schedule a university class engagement, discuss curriculum ideas, build campus partnerships or conduct scholarly research, contact Chris Molinski, Director of Education, Engagement and Learning at 334-844-7014.

Faculty are welcome to schedule class visits museum during regular hours of operation to teach in the museum galleries with the exhibitions currently on view. Small classes or self-guided visits are welcome any time without the need for advance registration. Faculty may also work with the Education, Engagement and Learning unit on co-learning strategies and reserve the Study Room. In this private classroom, groups of 10 to 15 students may view collection objects. Contemporary artists and scholars also visit the museum for short-term residencies, creating opportunities for in-class interaction and discussion.

The Jule welcomes inquiries from faculty and student working in any discipline. We are curious to learn together and build new connections across campus. Museum staff brainstorm activities, themes and new methods with you to support your instruction, research and outreach goals. Listen to The Jule Museum Podcast to get some ideas for cross-disciplinary projects. Use the museum Study Room to bring work from the art collection to your students or tour the vault. Browse the collection database or talk with museum staff to consider ideas for how collection objects can be used in your teaching. Since the Study Room reservations are capped at 15 students, consider dividing larger classes into multiple sessions or discuss other options with staff.

The museum is eager to partner with colleges and units on programs or initiatives directly related to the art collection and exhibitions. Past examples include “FretHaus,” “Becoming the Beloved Community,” and “Teaching with Collections.” Public and academic calendar offerings are scheduled up to one year in advance, with a three to five-year window for the exhibition schedule. The museum employs an annual thematic framework, filtered through a variety of lenses, including concepts associated with notions of absence and labor. Filters such as inclusion/diversity, genre, gender, subject matter, ethnicity, and high-optics dates at Auburn, throughout the state and the nation further inform the museum’s work.

As part of Auburn University, the museum conducts original research, empowering scholars to produce exhibitions and publications that contribute to new knowledge in the fields of art and art history. Museum staff also produce original exhibitions, using the power of the university’s art collection, available loans, academic context, and geographical location to support deep and sustained inquiry. Past museum projects have looked closely at the “Advancing American Art” collection with Art Interrupted: Advancing American Art and the Politics of Cultural Diplomacy (2012) and work by John James Audubon in Audubon’s Last Wilderness Journey: The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America (2018).