Ron Burch, curator of art and
architecture for the New York State
Museum, will speak on “Putting
Hindsight First: Collecting Now for the Future” on Monday, Sept. 30, at 6 p.m. in the Mandeville Gallery at Union
College's Nott Memorial.
His talk, free and open to the
public, is part of an exhibit titled “Unioniana! Union College Souvenirs and Memorabilia,” which runs through Oct.
13. The exhibit contains a number of collectibles – from cups to hats
and toys to prints – from Union's Special Collections.
In his talk, Burch will discuss
the recent collecting of artifacts from the World
Trade Center
for an exhibit by the New York State
Museum, the philosophy and human
nature involved in collecting, and collecting at the museum level. He will also
focus on how a curator determines what will be relevant for a collection for
generations to come.
Burch, who joined the state museum
in Albany in 1983, also was
registrar for the New York State Historical Association and the Farmer's Museum
in Cooperstown. He holds a master's degree in museum
studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program, and a master's in U.S. History
from Duke University.