As a think tank we are keen to engage the arts and humanities in exploring the wellbeing of others animals. Her experience in the interpretation of visual and material culture makes manifest that endeavour through an online exhibition entitled Picturing the Animal.
In Danielle’s words:
The exhibit is an ongoing series of close-looking engagements, one work of art at a time. Viewers are oriented to the practices of mindfully slowing down, noticing detail, and visual analysis, or making inferences and connections rooted in close observation and historical context. As the exhibition unfolds, thematic threads will include the philosophical treatment of animals through time, conceptualizations of nature and wilderness, generative understandings of humanity vis-a-vis animality, and the epistemic uses of animals as symbols, or stand-ins for or foils to human qualities like loyalty, grace, or courage. This project aims to visualize and articulate the complexities of our relationships with different kinds of animals so that we may begin to imagine possible ethical futures.
Danielle is exceptionally well positioned for this curation. She is an anthropologist, educator, and a Postdoctoral Fellow in Academic Affairs and Outreach at the Yale University Art Gallery. In this current role, she practices art-based pedagogies and focuses on expanding university-level curricular engagement with the museum’s collections. You can read more about Danielle’s impressive background in her PAN Works biography.
To follow the exhibit as it develops, please visit Picturing the Animal.