Lauren Woolf has studied art history and history while minoring in museum studies. Her involvement in these fields made her appreciate the tight-knit community that Beloit College has to offer; the support and strong relationship between her and Joy Beckman and Christa Story solidified her determination to go straight into a graduate program. The years of experience in the Wright guided her into the program she wanted and is now fully committed to attend the School at the Art Institute of Chicago next year.

Lauren studied abroad in Budapest for a semester and had fabulous opportunities to explore the museum culture of eastern Europe. The curatorial methods as well as the size and range of exhibitions and collections, have furthered her focus in art history and its preservation and curatorship. She began to recognize how museums in the U.S. display and exhibit artifacts and educate the community in much more limited ways–a problem she hopes to address in her future professional career.

Lauren’s desire is for museums to be accessible and to offer a wide range of educational possibilities. She believes that the current generation of graduating students are poised to take big strides in decolonizing museums policies and practices. She will be taking the theory, foundations, history, and practice that Beloit College has offered and will soon begin learning to apply them in the museum studies profession.