Department of Art History

During this intense period of closures, uncertainty, and isolation, Rachel Cohen has been reviewing thousands of photos of artworks that she has taken over the last nine years, creating a ‘remembered museum.’ Cohen is a Professor of Practice in the Arts in the creative writing program. Besides frequently teaching courses on writing about art that are cross-listed in art history, she also leads an annual session on writing labels for COSI Fellows at the Art Institute of Chicago. Every day on her website, Cohen publishes a short reflection on an artwork and includes her images of the object that she has taken at museums. She calls the collection The Frederick Project, named after the titular character in the children's book Frederick by Leo Lionni. In the book, a mouse named Frederick studies colors during the summertime so when winter comes, he can relay to other mice what he remembers.

The New Yorker online just published Cohen’s essay on missing museums, which details her experience collecting and analyzing the photographs for the project.

Read “What We Miss Without Museums”