Arleen Arzigian

Position
Associate Professor
Affiliated Departments
Telephone
617-747-6047

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Career Highlights
  • Director of visual resources at Boston University
  • Former museum librarian at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Education
  • School Name
    Tufts University
    State or Province
    Massachusetts
    Degree
    Master of Arts (M.A.)
    Field of Study
    Art History
    Date Degree Received
In Their Own Words

"I teach three art history classes. Students are required to take two. In the beginning they'll say, ‘I don't know why I have to take this,’ and I try to explain to them that they'll see the relationship between the music and the art. Ultimately, it's a creative process."

"As director of visual resources at B.U., we maintain the images that are used for teaching at B.U. We're in the process of digitizing the slides the professors use for teaching. Before that, I was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for six years, then I taught at the Boston Architectural College and Tufts. Before that I was at Harvard, in Visual Collections there."

"I think the faculty at Berklee are very engaged individually with the students, because a lot of what the students do is more creative, more individualized. I think people are more receptive to letting the students be a little freer. I have them do a presentation using visuals, or videos and visuals. They will often incorporate music into the presentations. They get very, very creative."

"We really get a lot out of our museum trips. A lot of the students have never been to the museum, and when we go, it’s an epiphany. So they really enjoy that part of it, and so do I. They often come back the following class and say they went back to the museum on their own that past weekend."

"When we have classroom or museum discussions, it just blows me away sometimes, some of the very perceptive things that the students ask. Usually I start to talk and describe things, and then we look at the pieces and describe what they see. I'll put up two slides and say, 'Let's compare these two; how are they similar or how are they different?' They'll take the ball with that and start going."