Post-graduation plans:
Tessa will be staying at Bryn Mawr for her final year of the AB/MA program in History of Art; she’ll be continuing her work as a curatorial intern at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. This summer, you’ll find her living in West Philly and working as a studio assistant to Rina Banerjee—and in the fall, she’ll be co-curating an exhibit at PAFA in the Works on Paper gallery with fellow intern Abigail Lua ’19.
Tessa on her Bryn Mawr experience:
“I feel like in general, Bryn Mawr really gives students a lot of autonomy, not just in professional ways, but within the community… for example, a student organization that I’m a part of (Productions of Color) put on a play that I wrote this semester. I’ve also been able to organize, curate, and create exhibitions at Bryn Mawr and Haverford in various student spaces through Art Club, VCAM, the Fine Arts program at Haverford, etc. I feel like I’ve been able to do everything I wanted to do in undergrad and then some, plus find a great community as well. I feel like everything I have now, I really owe to Bryn Mawr.â€
Major: History of Art
Minor: Museum Studies, Fine Arts concentration
Key Bryn Mawr experiences:
- Art Club president—“I was e-board my first semester and then president for the year and a half after that.â€
- Productions of Color (playwright: The Otherness)
- Disability Studies with professor Kristin Lindgren (Haverford)—"This semester I worked with an artist at the center for creative works on Lancaster, Kelly Brown, who’s both deaf and blind—she’s a textile artist like me, and I’m really interested in accessibility and institutional critique."
- Meeting Monique Scott (Museum Studies professor)—“I transferred in as a junior and was incredibly nervous about being able to graduate on par with my classmates, who had already had two years of experience in Philly museums. So I reached out to Monique and told her all of that and she really advocated for me in getting my first internship, and that has led to every other position I’ve gotten since then to have someone like her, who’s advocating for each of her students the way she does regularly, is so amazing, and I’m so indebted to her for that."
- A variety of exhibits, including: Beyond Boundaries: Feminine Forms (curatorial intern) a dual-sited exhibit that drew from collections of women artists at BMC and PAFA Spring ’17-Spring ’18; In Franklin’s Footsteps: 275 Years at the American Philosophical Society (APS Museum) Summer '17; Queer Art open exhibition at Arnecliffe Studio (student-run) Fall '17; PLEASE TOUCH THE ART: an anti-aesthetic project at Haverford Spring '18, and more. She'll also be the curatorial intern for several upcoming exhibits: SWARM., Infinite Spaces, and Make Me a Summary of the World: Rina Banerjee.
Hometown: Sterling, Virginia
Members of the Class of 2018, we want to know what you've got planned for life after Bryn Mawr! Drop us a note at news@brynmawr.edu. You can include a photo of yourself or let us know if you'd like to have a photo taken. We'll be sharing selected profiles on the College's website and social media channels in the weeks leading up to Commencement.