![\"Mead](\"http:\/\/sites.hampshire.edu\/theharold\/files\/2015\/12\/DSCF4577-e1450710805105-1024x666.jpg\")
I proposed an internship project to Karen Koehler, the ICP\u2019s director, to curate a digital exhibition of textile arts over the course of the 2015-16 academic year. I am focusing on textiles and images of textiles in the collections of the Mead Art Museum, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, Smith College Museum of Art, and Historic Deerfield. I\u2019m interested in creating a cross-cultural and cross-institutional exhibition that puts the collections of these various institutions into dialogue. I hope that this will become a useful resource for future students interested in material culture, global history, and curatorial practice. This is also intended for museum professionals who would like to experiment in digital exhibition of objects that are difficult to display in physical exhibition spaces.<\/p>\n The medium of a digital exhibition prompts questions about the possibilities and anxieties surrounding digital reproductions. Since the emergence of mechanical means of reproduction, specifically photography, there has been debate over whether the reproduced image can substitute for the original work of art. But what I hope to argue is that the digital reproduction is a useful tool for learning, teaching, and preserving objects.<\/p>\n My background in global history informs my approach to selecting and interpreting art objects. Most of the objects I\u2019ve selected are believed to have been made in Central, South, and West Asia, and the objects, made by distinct cultures, share a number of common design motifs. Some have been attributed to Western Europe or the United States, and have adopted motifs and stylistic forms from material culture imported from \u201cthe East\u201d. But some have more unclear origins. The common thread throughout many of these objects is their hybridity \u2013 I argue that these objects occupy a \u201cthird space\u201d in material culture.<\/p>\n Chelsea Miller is a Public History M.A. Candidate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and graduate intern at the Institute for Curatorial Practice.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Katja](\"http:\/\/sites.hampshire.edu\/theharold\/files\/2015\/12\/DSCF4484-300x225.jpg\")