Exhibit of Student Artworks Inspired by Burns Library Collections
Boston College Libraries supports faculty teaching and student learning in a variety of ways that can go far beyond a paper assignment. In Fall 2018, Professor Jane Cassidy’s Introduction to Digital Art class was charged with designing two tarot cards: one a recognizable self portrait, and the other a design of the student’s choosing. Librarians worked with Professor Cassidy to give students the skills they needed to tackle this creative challenge.
Before this assignment, the class visited John J. Burns Library for an introduction to symbolism and a library-led exercise designed to help students recognize symbols and understand how they work; communicate complex ideas through visual art; draw on historical sources to generate and refine interpretations; and synthesize a variety of sources to construct and support artistic arguments.
For this class session, students searched illustrated materials from Burns Library collections and identified symbols. Librarians then helped the students use reference resources—and the papers of G. William Patten, a Boston-area monument designer and artist with copious notes on symbolism—to learn more about symbols and meanings that they might include in their artworks.
After leaving Burns Library, the students used their new understanding of symbolism to create their own tarot cards. These cards are currently on display in the O’Neill Reading Room, in the exhibit “Tarot Cards: Art + Identity + Symbolism.”
Work in this exhibit was created by:
- Basti Belmonte (2022)
- Isabel Bulman (2022)
- Cate Casassa (2020)
- Mary Kate DiNorcia (2019)
- Laura Donovan (2019)
- Dantay Gabbidon (2022)
- Delaney Langdon (2022)
- Jinee Lee (2019)
- Lisa Li (2021)
- Andres Rivera (2020)
- Ngan Tran (2022)
The Burns Library session was so successful that Prof. Cassidy’s Introduction to Digital Art class will return in the Spring 2019 Semester (be on the lookout for new tarot cards later in the semester), and Prof. Cassidy’s Digital Art: Print Based Media class will also have 2 sessions at Burns Library.
Burns Library is happy to encourage wider use of Burns Library’s unique materials for teaching and research, and will work creatively with faculty and others to develop customized classes, activities, and assignments around syllabi topics and learning objectives. Instructors interested in using special collections materials to enhance the learning outcomes of their courses and/or research assignments should contact Burns Library staff.
