Art for All

The Brooklyn Museum. The Art Institute of Chicago. The Sarah Gormley Gallery in Columbus, Ohio. Anyone aspiring to a career in the arts would be thrilled to have an experience at just one of these institutions. – which makes it all the more impressive that Maggie Perry ’24 was able to have meaningful roles at all three before she had even received her DePauw diploma.

For Perry, an art history major with minors in Hispanic studies and museum studies, these internships helped bring clarity to her interests. “I knew that I liked art history,” she recalls, “but I didn’t know where that would take me.”

Her semester-long internship at the Brooklyn Museum was particularly transformative in this regard, largely due to the close collaboration it allowed her to enjoy with the curators. “I felt so honored that they trusted me to do this work as a college student. Here are these wonderfully brilliant and amazing women in curatorial roles at one of the most respected institutions in New York City. And here I am, doing work right alongside them.”

One important result from this experience was confidence. “Being trusted to do that work helped me learn to trust myself more – to trust my abilities, my research, and my writing.”

But another important result was the path it forged for Perry to explore the subjects of inclusion and accessibility – topics that eventually became the focus of her Honor Scholar senior thesis. “I understand the deep power that art has in creating connections, and also in fostering cultural literacy that has been so exclusive for so long,” she explains. Perry is on a mission to dismantle that exclusivity by making art accessible to those who have traditionally found it intimidating or unwelcoming.

It’s a mission that is deeply personal for her. “My passion for art accessibility has come from my own passion for art in general,” she says. “I love looking at art, I love writing about it, I love analyzing it.” 

DePauw proved to be the ideal place for Perry to explore that passion and learn how she could utilize it to make a difference. Her exceptional work as a student earned her the Art DePartment Scholarship in 2022, the Catherine E. Fruhan Art History Student Prize three years in a row, and the prestigious Murad Medal in 2024.

“I feel grateful for all the opportunities that I had here, the inspiration that I found, the confidence that I found,” she notes. “I know that I’ve earned my space. Wherever I end up, I’m confident that I’ll do well.”