What Happens When Students Help Curate the Museum Experience?

At a time when museums are striving to become more inclusive, relevant, and responsive to younger generations, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is taking a thoughtful and practical approach: inviting university students to help shape how the museum tells its stories—and paying them to do it.

In a recent talk at the Creative Museums Summit, Efe Igor, Assistant Director of Academic Engagement, and Queena Ko, Manager of Academic Engagement, shared how the Guggenheim has developed innovative academic partnerships with the City University of New York (CUNY) and Rutgers University. Their goal? To offer students meaningful ways to engage with art and the museum, while also cultivating the next generation of creative professionals.

Creating Space for Student Voices

The Guggenheim’s academic engagement work is grounded in its Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion (DEAI) plan, which calls for more equitable access to museum opportunities. That philosophy comes to life in two standout student-led projects: an audio guide series and a printed activity booklet, both of which were developed collaboratively with students and distributed to the public.

The first initiative, Student Conversations on Art, brought together five students from CUNY during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the museum had reopened to visitors, many students were still learning remotely, prompting the Guggenheim to design a fully digital, paid program. Over 12 weeks, students researched artworks from the museum’s collection, interviewed staff, peers, and family members, and created original audio content for the museum’s Bloomberg Connects app.

One student, Chelsea Edina, explored the work Das Beste oder Nichts by János Vaszary, connecting it to her mother’s immigration story. Her track blended personal narrative with artistic interpretation and included segments in Spanish, broadening the reach and relatability of the museum’s digital guide.

As Ko shared, “We wanted students to feel empowered to shape how the museum’s collection is understood—not just to learn about art history, but to connect it to their own identities and experiences.”

From the Classroom to the Gallery

In a second project, the Guggenheim worked with undergraduate design students at Rutgers University to create a printed activity booklet inspired by the museum’s exhibitions. Students responded to works by Vasily Kandinsky and Jenny C. Jones, designing interactive prompts that encouraged visitors to slow down, observe, and creatively engage with the art.

The result was a booklet titled Everything Starts from a Dot, a nod to a Kandinsky quote. The Guggenheim printed 400 copies and distributed them to visitors at the museum. A digital version was also made available online.

This project, like the audio guide, offered students a real-world professional experience. They weren’t just responding to a hypothetical assignment—they were producing materials for public audiences, working to museum deadlines, and receiving mentorship from education and design staff.

Rethinking Museum Learning

While both projects had different outputs, they shared a common aim: to bring student voices into the museum in a meaningful way, and to do so with care, structure, and compensation.

Rather than offering unpaid internships or surface-level experiences, the Guggenheim designed these programs to develop transferable skills—from interviewing and scriptwriting to editing and visual design. Mentorship played a key role, as did giving students room to experiment, reflect, and respond to the collection in ways that felt authentic.

Importantly, the museum also ensured that students were paid for their contributions. As Igor noted, this was essential in removing financial barriers and helping students from a wide range of backgrounds participate fully.

Investing in the Future

The Guggenheim’s education team sees these projects not only as educational opportunities, but as long-term investments in the future of the museum field. By working in partnership with universities and giving students real responsibilities, they’re helping to shape more inclusive pathways into cultural careers.

Since completing the audio guide series, the museum has extended the project into a blog format called Student Reflections on Art, continuing the focus on identity, belonging, and creative interpretation.

As museums look for new ways to connect with younger audiences, these student-led collaborations offer a compelling model—one rooted in trust, mentorship, and mutual benefit. The Guggenheim’s approach shows that when students are given the tools and support to contribute meaningfully, they can help to reshape our Museums.

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Efe Igor and Queena Ko from Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum spoke about their work building opportunities for students at the Creative Museums Summit 2023.