The Princeton Art Museum: From Idea to Installation: Curatorial Work in Practice

Hosted at the Princeton University Art Museum, this event offers graduate students a behind-the-scenes look at how museum exhibitions are conceived, shaped, and brought to life. Curators from the museum will present exhibitions they have worked on and walk us through the curatorial process—from the initial idea to the final installation. The conversation will explore key questions at the heart of curatorial practice: How does one create an exhibition? What kinds of research, collaboration, and decision-making are involved? How do curators decide what objects to include, and what narratives an exhibition ultimately tells? Curators will also reflect on their own professional trajectories, sharing what their roles at the museum entail and what training prepared them for this work. 

The tour will be led by Karl Kusserow, the John Wilmerding Senior Curator of American Art, and Zoe Kwok *13, the Nancy and Peter Lee Senior Curator of Asian Art. 

This event is a part of the 2026 GradFUTURES Forum, an annual professional development conference, that is open to the entire Princeton graduate community (including Ph.D. and master’s students and alumni) as well as to graduate students and staff from graduate institutions across the country and around the world. Offering a full week of engaging keynote speakers, skill-building workshops, alumni panels, and networking sessions, the GradFUTURES Forum features dozens of online and in-person sessions with real-time relevance to success in graduate school and a glimpse into a world of possibilities beyond. As we celebrate The Graduate School's 125th anniversary, this year's GradFUTURES Forum theme is "Preparing Graduate Students for Transformational Impact.

* Hosting of panelists and speakers does not constitute institutional endorsement of external speakers or views presented.

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