Hi and welcome to this episode of Inside the Benton. I’m your host, Hannah Avalos, and in this episode, we will explore Art Object Specimen, an exhibition that is closing in just about two weeks at the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College. So listen to this episode and then make sure to get to the museum to see the show.

Art Object, Specimen tests and explores the expectations that art museum spaces implicitly place on the objects that they display. The exhibition calls into question the categories we use to talk about objects in the world. Which objects are art? Which are specimens? Does your coffee mug become art if it goes from your kitchen table into a museum? What does it mean to be an object?

Much like how the geological specimens in the show index moments in earth’s history, this episode serves as a record of what this exhibition captured. In this episode you’ll hear me talk first with Noor Tamari ‘22 about the snuff bottles in the collection. And from the geology department, you will hear both from D’maia Curry, ‘19 who was also the Benton’s Post Baccalaureate fellow, and Geology Professor Jade Star Lackey. They will both talk about the intersections of art and geology and what this exhibition meant to them.

Let's get into it.