Keeping Watch in the Galleries

How a job at the Chazen is reshaping one UW-Madison junior's relationship with art in unexpected ways.

Story and photos by Jakob Miller

Most visitors move through the Chazen Museum of Art in under an hour. They drift from painting to painting, take a photo or two, and leave. But for UW-Madison junior Claire Hoppe, the galleries are not a quick stop. They're where she spends hours every week, watching, listening, and learning in ways she never expected.

Claire, a history major earning certificates in Integrated Liberal Studies and LGBT Studies, works as a building and security assistant at the Chazen. Student employees like her greet guests at the front desk, run visitor surveys, and spend time in the galleries to make sure the artwork and the people viewing it stay safe. She's part of a surprisingly large operation. The Chazen is free, open every day, and home to more than 25,000 artworks, with about 1,700 on view at any time.

It wasn't an obvious job at first, but it quickly became a meaningful one. "The idea of working in a museum really excited me," she says. It matched her interests and fit her life in a way other jobs didn't. She also appreciated that the position offered something she could physically manage.

A typical day starts with a radio, a lanyard, and a set of keys. From there, Claire rotates among the front desk, the survey station, and the galleries.

At the desk, she answers questions, points out where everything is, and helps guests understand the rules before they head upstairs to the galleries. Sometimes she sets up the survey tablet and asks every other visitor if they'd be willing to fill one out. Other days she's tucked deep in a gallery, watching over whatever paintings or sculptures she's assigned to for that half hour.

"Most of the time, it's just giving reminders," she says. "Making sure that everything's running nicely and making sure the visitor has a good experience, as well as protecting the art."

Before she started at the Chazen, Claire didn't think much about contemporary art. "I had never considered myself a fan of more modern abstract art," she says. When she visited museums, she went straight for Renaissance paintings and sculpture. Working at the Chazen changed that.

Because the museum's upper floors feature a large amount of modern and contemporary work, she ended up spending hours with objects she once ignored. "Being around them has made me appreciate them more," she says.

The daily repetition created a different kind of bond, something beyond the typical museum experience. She describes forming a relationship with certain objects through her job. "I both feel protective over them, but also I know them so well," she says. "It forms an interesting relationship."

Some of her favorite moments come from visitor interactions, especially when someone is trying to figure out an object that confuses them.

One sculpture in particular that draws a wide range of reactions is titled, "Are A Hundred Playing You? Or Only One? " by Xiang Jing, which features seven women sitting in a circle around a small wading pool. Objects like this are placed intentionally in the galleries to spark curiosity and conversation, something Claire observes almost daily. People ask her all the time what Jing's work means. "Some people are like, 'I want to understand the meaning behind this,'" she says, "while some people definitely seem a little more like, 'I don't get what's going on here, and it's worrying me.'"

Claire never pretends to have an official interpretation. Instead, she tries to talk through what she notices and asks visitors what they think in return. "Helping guide them, 'Well, this is what I think, what do you think?' Those are always very memorable."

Working at the Chazen hasn't just changed how she relates to the art, it's changed how she behaves in other museums too.

"Whenever I visit museums now, one of the first things I'm thinking of is, like, 'How is the role that I play here being played out by others in the museum?'" she says. She even jokes with friends about being the "perfect visitors" because she knows what it feels like to stand in a gallery and watch.

It's also shifted how she sees museum design. Before this job, she rarely thought about why certain objects hung where they did. Now she notices layout, spacing, and structure. When she visited the Art Institute of Chicago last winter, she says, "The way I interacted with it would have been very different if I had not worked this job beforehand."

Outside of Claire's day-to-day work, the Chazen plays a big role in student life. The museum hosts events throughout the year, like Trivia Night, Late Night at the Museum, and Flashlight Tours, to help students feel comfortable in the space and make the galleries more inviting.

If Claire could tell visitors one thing about engaging with art, it would be simple: talk about it.

"Don't be afraid to talk to other people about art and ask questions of those around you," she says. She loves when visitors ask her what she thinks and she loves guiding them toward their own interpretations. "Most people are very happy to talk about the pieces they're interested in."

After hundreds of hours of quiet observation, Claire sees art differently now. It isn't just something to pass by, but something to sit with, to protect, and to talk through. Without meaning to, she's learned to appreciate art in forms she never expected.

The Chazen may be filled with paintings, sculptures, and installations, but for Claire, it has also become a place of discovery, a place where watching over the art helps her understand her own relationship with it.

Jakob Miller is a student staff writer and photographer for the Division of the Arts.