The ICA's Fall opening is happening this Wednesday at 6:00 p.m., featuring exhibitions from three different artists: Josephine Pryde, Christopher Knowles and Becky Suss. A lot of work goes into making these exhibitions possible, both by the ICA and by its student board members. Street sat down with one of those students, Chloe Kaufman, who has been actively involved with both the SPEC Art Collective and the ICA since her freshman year at Penn. Now a senior, Chloe discusses how art, Penn and the ICA have contributed to her life and her ideas about her future.
Street: When did you become interested in art?
Chloe Kaufman: I became interested in art very early on because my parents were very interested in it. My mom collects and so when I was little she would take me everywhere. I would be dragged to galleries and museums and just from being exposed to all those things I grew to like it.
Street: Do you have a favorite period of art?
CK: Contemporary art is definitely my favorite. I think it’s the most interesting because a lot of it deals with what’s going on right now and it feels the most relevant.
Street: When did you become involved with the SPEC Art Collective?
CK: I became involved my Sophomore year. They did a lecture with the Guerilla Girls, and I went to that speaker event, thought it was really cool and signed up for the listserv. They were looking for committee chair applicants so I applied.
Street: And how about with the ICA?
CK: I became involved with the ICA my freshman year. I took one of the ICA curatorial seminars, which was a full year, and it was incredible.
Street: What are the curatorial seminars?
CK: Every year there’s a Spiegel Seminar funded by the Spiegel family. It’s a partnership between the Art History department and the ICA. The designated professor that year will go and pick an exhibition from the archives to base the class around. My professor was professor Shaw and she picked the Glenn Ligon exhibition from 1998 and that was the basis for the entire course. The first 
semester we studied him, his artwork, his contemporaries, as well as his exhibition at ICA. We went through the archives and looked at all the documents from the correspondence with the curator, with him, at all the slides, and we got to meet him at his studio in Brooklyn. And then the second half of the year we curated our own exhibition in response to what we learned in class and experienced all of the aspects of installing and curating an exhibition.
So that’s how I initially became involved. I had known what the ICA was before coming into school and that’s mainly why I signed up for the course. During the second semester, aside from curating the exhibition, we also each had mini internships with someone at the ICA . It was a great experience to work with the staff directly. And then from that they recommended that I apply for the student board.
Street: So what is your role within the ICA?
CK: I applied to join the board at the end of my Freshman year so I’ve really been a part of it since my Sophomore year. We act as liaisons between the University and the museum. The idea is to, on one hand, help the museum target and reach Penn students, to give them a perspective on what we like, what works, what we think they can to do improve. But then we also explain to Penn students what’s so great about the ICA and get them to come to the events and excited about the museum.
One of the main things we do is host Free For All, which is a biannual event that happens in the Spring and the Fall [Ed. Note: The next Free For All is September 30th]. We host the event to engage Penn students and the outside community, and it usually involves some sort of speaker or performer, and there’ll always be free food and fun stuff like that.
Street: Tell me about the upcoming opening, what about it are you excited for?
CK: The opening is going to be really great. The event opens to the public at 6pm, but at 5pm there will be conversations between the artists and curators in the auditorium as well as a short reception for members. Though this event is only for members, there is a new free student membership available for Penn students! You can even sign up for it the day of the opening if you want to, just make sure to arrive at least 15 minutes in advance and seating is limited.
There will be food, music, mingling and great people watching—not to mention a real, running train that you can ride.
Street: Where do you see your interest in and involvement with art taking you in the future?
CK: Art has taken me on a weird path. I’ve always thought I wanted to work in an auction house or in a gallery or some other way in the art world. But, through my internships, I’ve actually ended up interested in art law. So that’s the direction I’m working towards at the moment.
