Each year the Johnson Museum provides an opportunity for students in the History of Art Majors’ Society to gain direct curatorial experience by organizing an exhibition. This year, the exhibition takes as its starting point not a particular geographic area or time period, but rather a phenomenon that exists wherever consolidated authority or conventions of good taste have taken hold.

“Revolt” characterizes opposition and resistance to prevailing social, cultural, or political mores. In dialogue with international and local uprisings and insurrections found in the Johnson and other campus institutions’ collections, the exhibition presents Cornell as a locus for rebellion and innovation throughout its one hundred and fifty years. By showcasing the use of unorthodox, radical aesthetics to subversive ends, Revolt argues for art’s ability to participate in the creation of new realities.

Follow the students’ progress on the group’s blog and Instagram.

This exhibition was curated by undergraduate members of Cornell’s History of Art Majors’ Society with oversight by Alana Ryder, Mellon Curatorial Coordinator for Academic Programs at the Johnson Museum, and funded in part by a generous gift from Betsey and Alan Harris. The exhibition and its programs have also been supported by grants from the Cornell Council for the Arts and the International Students Union.