Courtney Khim, new Mellon Undergraduate Curatorial fellow
Six museums—The Art Institute of Chicago, the High Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art—participate in The Andrew W. Mellon Undergraduate Curatorial Fellowship Program and have announced the 2018–20 class of fellows.
The fellowship provides specialized training to students across the United States from historically underrepresented groups in the curatorial field and support the goal of promoting inclusive, pluralistic museums. The students begin their fellowships this fall.
The MFAH has selected a fourth-year student attending the University of Houston, Courtney Khim. Khim has contributed to the work and mission of collections and art galleries in the city of Houston: she currently interns and is also a docent for the curatorial department of Blaffer Art Museum, the contemporary art museum of the University of Houston; she serves as social coordinator and community organizer for the Blaffer Art Museum Student Association (BAMSA); and she was an art administration intern at DiverseWorks, a nonprofit arts organization that supports new and daring art through innovative collaboration. Her practice as an art student focuses on color theory and identity through mixed-media painting. As a fellow, Khim seeks to continue pursuing her passion for contemporary art while further developing her practice as an artist and curator. Currently busy with all these activities, she’s actively engaged in covering all possibilities for grad school. She majors in art with a double minor in art history and German.
Avani Sastry, new Mellon Undergraduate Curatorial fellow
Avani Sastry, a second-year student from Trinity University in San Antonio has also been chosen. Her curatorial mentors will be Bradley Bailey, Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Curator of Asian Art. Before discovering her passion for art history and the curatorial field, Sastry explored a wide range of fields, from plant biology research at the University of Texas, to reviewing films for the Austin Film Festival, to interning at the creative writing education nonprofit Gemini Ink. As a Mellon Fellow, Sastry is interested in applying her diverse experiences to her curatorial practice while pursuing her passion for modern and contemporary South Asian art, with an emphasis on post-colonialism, the desi diaspora, and issues of gender and sexuality.
A big congratulations to both!
