Photo courtesy of Abigail Hoover
Abigail Hoover started this year as the new museum registrar and collections manager at MHCAM.
BY GILLIAN PETRARCA ’23
At the beginning of the 2019 fall semester, the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum (MHCAM) welcomed Abigail Hoover as the new museum registrar and collections manager.
Before coming to Mount Holyoke, Hoover worked in New York City at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum for two years and then at the Whitney Museum of American Art for 13 years. Hoover began working in museums as an undergraduate student at Northwestern University, where she took two seminar-style classes. Hoover describes this experience as transformative.
“These classes really focused on more of the back of house things that you couldn’t really see in a classroom,” Hoover said. “I didn’t realize that a museum had all of these things going on. From then on, it was always in the back of my head that I would work in a university art museum.”
As the Mount Holyoke Art Museum registrar and collections manager, Hoover is in charge of the safekeeping of the artwork. This includes making sure the artwork is housed safely and put in a database museum staff.
Hoover also makes sure that the area in the back of the museum is safe for the art. This includes making sure there is no blaring light to ruin works on paper and assisting preparators with setting up artwork. In addition, Hoover is in charge of museum security and works with museum security guards and student workers.
Recently, Hoover has been sitting in on classes in the art museum and assisting with the museum guides program. This program enables students to come in and learn to teach with the museum.
“I’ve been working with the guides on a more casual note and have been observing the learning going on in the classes that happen in the museum,” Hoover said.
Bran Kroc ’20, an intern with the museum collections team, has been working closely with Hoover. “
[Hoover] is a really great mentor. Working with her has been great — she knows so much about art,” Kroc said. “She recently helped me with a project that I was doing. [Hoover] is approachable and so easy to work with.”
When asked about her favorite piece of artwork in the museum, Hoover says that it’s too soon to pick. However, she really likes the juxtaposition of fine and contemporary between the Skinner Museum and MHCAM.
“There is a new acquisition called ‘Broom Jumpers.’ It’s gorgeous,” Hoover said. “I think I like it the most so far, maybe because we’re both new to the museum.”
Hoover encourages all students to drop by the art museum.
“One of my goals is to have every student on campus come to the museum in some capacity during their time at Mount Holyoke,” Hoover said.