The Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State has a new face in Jodie Throckmorton, the museum’s next curator.

Throckmorton’s initiatives center around student involvement at the museum.

“I would love to find a way to get the students even more involved in what’s going on at the Ulrich. It’s ultimately their museum,” Throckmorton said.

The search committee made the announcement last week. Throckmorton will start the new position in June.

She said one goal as curator is to demonstrate how art relates to non-art fields, such as engineering, and how it can make students more well-rounded.

“Even if you’re not an art history student, there is something you can find value in at an art museum, something as basic as the idea that the creator processed,” Throckmorton said. “A lot of my friends are engineers. I’ve been thinking about how similar their creative process is to an artist.”

Bob Workman, director of the Ulrich Museum of Art, said the position is multifaceted.

“A (curator) has to be a scholar in modern and contemporary art,” he said.

Throckmorton also wants to maintain the standard of excellence at the Ulrich.

“The previous curator did a wonderful job at this,” she said. “But I want to continue to make sure that people know that there is a world-class collection of objects in Wichita.”

Throckmorton said her goals might mean opening up more exhibitions of permanent collections or opening up more to students and researchers.

“I’m excited to join the Ulrich team, which I have heard many good things about,” Throckmorton said.

Workman said the curator is also responsible for the exhibition calendar.

“The temporary shows change several times a year,” he said. “In some cases, the curator is developing shows themselves, in some cases working with colleagues, in some cases (the shows are) projects of other people that we bring to the Ulrich as peers.”

“A curator works to continue to develop the permanent collection of the museum,” Workman said.

A curator’s role traditionally includes collection research and overseeing artwork maintenance.

Workman said the curator is “responsible for developing acquisition strategies both through purchase and through gift.”

The search committee sought an experienced candidate with who had experience in the expected range of responsibilities.

These skills range from experience in the realms of art research to having a background in academia and strengths in public outreach.

“(The curator needs to have) one eye on the internal side,” Workman said, “another eye on the dynamic exhibitions program that engages the university audience, as well as the broader community, and then this third eye on continuing to build a collection and making sure that we’re the most dynamic place we can be.”

Once the committee had selected two candidates as finalists, they looked at nitty-gritty details. They examined what set Throckmorton apart from the rest.

“The specific difference between the two candidates is that one has had a lot of experience in the university gallery environment, but not in the university museum environment,” Workman said.

He explained that a museum is designed for collecting, while a gallery serves non-collecting purposes.

“Ultimately we decided that Jodi had more experience that was directly relatable to the Ulrich Museum,” Workman said.