Woodridge Student Helps Curate Award-Winning Exhibit

Teri Nguyen, of Woodridge, is one of 10 students who helped curate "Unraveling Revelations: Decoding the Prophetic Charts", an award-winning exhibit for Aurora University's Schingoethe Center. The exhibit was curated by students in the Aurora University spring 2012 MST2200 Museum Exhibitions course, and recently received an Award of Excellence in Exhibitions from the Illinois Association of Museums.

In the early 19th century, a man named William Miller came to the conclusion that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ was imminent and would take place in 1843. On display are eight of the 36 charts from the Aurora University Jenks Memorial Collection of Adventual Materials. The charts were used as visual aids at church services and camp meetings to teach out the prophecies, which Miller believed were about to come to fruition.

"I chose to have students in my Museum Exhibitions course curate this show because it was such a remarkable opportunity for them to work with a unique collection," said Meg Bero, Director of the Schingoethe Center. "Upon completion of the exhibit it was evident that this project would be a worthy nominee for an award from the Illinois Association of Museums."

Bero wanted to give students the real-world experience of creating an exhibit from beginning to end. She acted as a guide throughout the process and allowed her students to explore the many facets of exhibit production.

"Unraveling Revelations: Decoding the Prophetic Charts" will be on display Friday, October 5 through Friday, December 14, 2012, and is open to the public. Visitors can view the collection during normal gallery hours. Gallery hours are 8 a.m.–9 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Friday; and 1–4 p.m. Sunday.