Art Digitization Project Sends Students on an Exploration of the Erie Art Museum’s History

Two Allegheny College students spent the summer in Erie, but forwent Presque Isle views for a dive into an art collection over 8,000 works deep.

Through June and July, Angelee Bawek '27 and Owen Ranus '27 conducted a community-based research project digitizing works at the Erie Art Museum.

After examining the collection and selecting which works would be included in the project, the pair photographed them using a high-resolution camera and uploaded them to the museum's new database, which will be open-access and publicly available upon the project's completion.

Bawek and Ranus photographed between 300 and 400 works over the eight week period.

"There's so much in there and, as you're pulling things out - at least for me - I was like, 'I can't get to this now, but I can't wait to,'" Ranus said. "That process of discovery is so much fun."

Opportunities Through Unexpected Paths

Ranus, a history major with minors in public humanities and French, landed at the art museum through less traditional means. While he isn't academically interested in art, it's an important feature in understanding history. The project also gave him crucial digitization skills and an opportunity to explore the life of a museum employee - two experiences that can inform and assist his job search after graduation.

His work in the Erie Art Museum's collection still allowed time for research that more closely resembled that of his selected field; it also holds many records of the Erie Art Club, the group of educators and art enthusiasts that propagated the museum, which was founded in 1898.

"I personally looked at some of the Erie Art Club's early minutes, examining what they were purchasing, and I also looked at one of the biggest donors to the museum, James D. Baldwin, and what his contributions were," Ranus said.

Bawek landed at the museum through a more traditional academic path. She came to Allegheny interested in graphic design and digital art, but her coursework in art history and communications led her to the Public Humanities major.

Her final nudge toward the museum's historical and curatorial work came in the form of a study abroad trip to Europe - an experience Ranus shared.

"For me, that was a really big factor in wanting to go into museum work, because there were just so many museums over there and art was so important," Bawek said. "I really wanted to explore that back home."

Contributing to Community Partnerships

The community-based research project came about through a joint effort between Allegheny College's Community Impact Hub (CIH) and Paula Burleigh - an associate professor of art, co-director of the public humanities program, a CIH faculty fellow for Community-Engaged Learning, and sitting vice president of the Erie Art Museum's board.

Earlier this year, the museum was awarded a $4,200 Community Impact Hub subgrant, which supported the purchase of equipment for the digitization project. The Community Impact Hub also funded the two students' eight-week internship at the museum.

Allegheny College launched the Community Impact Hub in the fall of 2024 thanks to a $15 million grant from a source that wishes to remain anonymous. It fosters sustained partnerships between the College, community organizations, government agencies, and local schools in the greater Meadville region through engaged learning projects and programming, which are driven by student and faculty participation.

"The digitization project is an enormous and important undertaking, which will eventually make the museum's collection accessible to researchers, students, and members of the public within - but also far beyond - our immediate community," Burleigh said. "It's been wonderful to collaborate with the Erie Art Museum to devise a mutually beneficial project."

Finding Purpose Through Passion

Over the first few weeks, Bawek and Ranus were essentially in training; they learned how to maneuver the collection, safely handle artworks, and take photographs while minimizing glare and reflections. These, Bawek said, were their primary charges included in the project's parameters.

But after mastering those skills, their deep interest in the source material expanded their purview. Bawek found herself reviewing artist biographies, their obituaries, histories of their craft, and press their work received.

At one point, I had five different projects going: there was digitization, there were files I had to go through, there was research for an external group, research for me, research for Allegheny," Bawek said. "It opened up so much knowledge about stuff that had been lost, really, throughout the history of the museum.

While the Erie Art Museum's launch of the full, open-access digital database isn't expected until 2028, Ranus and Bawek's digitization and research prowess will be on display online via Google Arts & Culture by the end of this year.

"Having Allegheny students contribute allowed the museum to make significant progress on this multi-year project and, in turn, gave our students invaluable, hands-on experience working in a museum, building skills that they will apply in future academic and professional endeavors," Burleigh said.