Doctoral Candidate in Art Education, Specialization in Latina/o Studies

I am a museum person. My career began at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC in the modern art department. Though I loved the art and the people, I chose Art Education for grad school because I wanted my work to include a broader conversation with the general public. Since I wanted to stay in art museums, but move to the education side, the specificity of a degree focused on art education pedagogy appealed to me.

When I visited Ohio State, I was impressed by the energy and enthusiasm of the graduate students in the department (AAEP). I liked the opportunity of being at a research one university, where I could work with leading scholars not only in Art Education but also in fields across the social sciences and humanities. The funding opportunities Ohio State offers are unique in museum education, particularly at the master’s level, where I was given a fellowship to fully fund my first year.

Throughout my master’s, I realized I had more questions than answers, which is how I ended up continuing to work on my PhD in Art Education. I study the experiences of enjoyment and alienation among Latina/o visitors to encyclopedic art museums. I came to this topic through personal experience as a Latina museum visitor and professional who felt both love for art and museums and betrayal that many of these institutions did not seem to value Latina/o visitors and art. 

When I realized that my internal conflict was shared by other Latina/o visitors to encyclopedic art museums, I knew I had a dissertation topic. My goal with this research is twofold: to share Latina/o visitor experiences of navigating enjoyment and alienation in encyclopedic art museum spaces and to analyze what strategies they are using to promote their own sense of belonging.  This research will help museums think about how they can learn from Latina/o visitors to develop strategies for better visitor exclusion.

I have a graduate appointment in the Wexner Center for the Arts Education department. I love having a grounded context in which to transform the theoretical points of museum visitor inclusion into practical measures. It’s also great professional experience that keeps me connected to museums as I write my dissertation.

View Verónica Betancourt's publications on her personal webpage.