Prior to photography, watercolorists and illustrators were incredibly valuable to American society. The only way to see what laid beyond the East coast’s city limits were the illustrations artists would bring back from their trips out West. 19th century artists, namely Thomas Cole, had the ability to deliver visuals of the landscape to congressmen, ultimately leading to the first government-protected national park in 1872: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

Thomas Cole, thought to have been America’s first conservationist, created a five part series that followed the rise and fall of a generalized civilization, meant to represent the cyclical nature every empire follows, regardless of outside circumstance or location. Having been painted during the peak of the Industrial Revolution in North America, Thomas Cole’s series warned of what would happen to the natural landscape of the American West, if not careful of our over-industrialization. His call to action led to the creation of National Park spaces, as well as warning other Global North countries of their empirical growth. In my final semester of my BFA program at Kennesaw State University, I spent five months creating a curatorial proposal of a fictional museum exhibit to be exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

At the end of the semester I showcased my work in a symposium setting, proposing my curatorial work to various professors and my board of thesis advisors. I designed a four-room virtual gallery that can be viewed on a mobile device, via QR code scan, allowing my colleagues and audience to personally walk through the exhibit. In my curatorial essay I dive deeper into my proposal, highlighting Cole’s career and just how monumental this specific series was to the trajectory of American society.

I created my exhibition through a contemporary lense, seeking to prove that what Cole claimed would happen to America post-Industrial Revolution, truly did occur. I curated pieces from Ansel Adams, Agnes Denes, Andres Gursky, Banksy, and Lois Weinberger. Each piece of Cole’s Course of Empire is given a corresponding contemporary piece to show the true aftermath of his claims.

Promotional leaflet for exhibition

QR code for virtual exhibition