-Summer Project Program-

Students can apply to work on either of the following projects:

Farm Service Administration (FSA) Photography of Louisiana, 1935–1940

This project will use primary-source research to examine images made in Louisiana between 1935 and 1940 as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal–era federal photography program. Working with the curator, the student will research and help select images from the Library of Congress archives, focusing on work by photographers such as Walker Evans, Russell Lee, Marion Post Wolcott, and Ben Shahn, who documented rural life and working-class communities during the Great Depression. The research will include archival image analysis, historical and geographic contextualization, biographical study of the photographers, and investigation of New Deal policies and their social impact in Louisiana, and will form the foundation for a future exhibition focused on FSA photography in Louisiana and its place within one of the most significant documentary photography initiatives in American history.

 

Deep Dive into Artist, LSU Professor, and Inventor Caroline Durieux

This project will use primary source materials research to create a detailed timeline documenting the life and achievements of twentieth-century printmaker Caroline Durieux (1896—1989), drawing parallels between her research and artmaking with related events in American and Latin American history. Durieux played a key role in the founding of LSU's School of Art and collaborated with LSU chemists and biologists to develop the electron printmaking process, which uses radioactive isotopes to produce imagery. The LSUMOA is currently crafting a traveling exhibition showcasing her vast contributions to printmaking, education, research, and modernist art during a male-dominated art era. The outcomes will enhance the interpretation of the traveling exhibition, and aid in an upcoming project focused on recreating Durieux’s electron printing technique in partnership with LSU professors from the School of Art and the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

 

Project: The Role of Ivory in Art for the Export Trade before 1950

This project will examine how Asian and African ivory was used to craft small art objects for export to Europe and the Americas, detailing the history, techniques, imagery, and impact of this practice. The researcher will analyze a minimum of ten pieces from the LSUMOA collection, providing a comprehensive examination of each. The findings, along with high-resolution 3D imagery of the artworks (created by undergraduate students in the previous semester), will be featured in an online exhibition on the museum’s website.

The student selected to work on the project will receive up to $3,000 in wages ($15/hour for 20 hours/week for 10 weeks) to work on the project during the Summer 2025 semester.  

Project supervisor: Museum Registrar Marianna Luquette

Please direct questions about this project to lsuour@lsu.edu  

 Summer 2025 Recipient:

 

LSU Museum of Art WWII Sketchbook Project

This project will use primary source research to document and develop interpretive history for artwork made by Edward Millman (1907–1964). The LSU Museum of Art owns a collection of wartime sketchbooks documenting the artist’s tour as a United States Navy combat artist in the Pacific theater during WWII from 1944–1945. The drawings relate scenes of combat, military life, and the surrounding civilian community. During the project, the student will digitally archive the sketchbooks, as they are fragile and in a state of deterioration, and research the activities and/or scenes related in at least fifteen of the works. The resulting findings will be combined with the digital imagery and presented as an online exhibition via the Museum’s website.

The student selected to work on the project will receive up to $3,000 in wages ($15/hour for 20 hours/week for 10 weeks) to work on the project during the Summer 2024 semester.  

Project supervisor: Museum Registrar Marianna Luquette

 

Summer 2024 Recipient: