Special Guest: Alice S. Kandell

The week before last while viewing the Tibetan Shrine Room, from the Alice S. Kandell Collection, with a group of 6th graders from Shuang Wen School (PS 184) on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, I encountered two well-dressed guests headed in our direction.  While the students were in the midst of a discussing what they noticed with the person next to them (I often do this in the galleries or in class when students are bubbling over with enthusiasm and I want them all to have a chance to all share their observations despite time limitations), I whispered to the two guests, “We’ll be out of your way in just one moment.”

Installation photograph of The Tibetan Shrine Room from the Alice S. Kandell Collection, organized by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Photograph by David De Armas

As soon as we left the Shrine area of the gallery one of the well-dressed guests asked me if I was the students’ teacher. I told her I work at the museum and was leading the tour for the school group and she immediately introduced herself to me as Alice Kandell, and generously offered to share with the students her personal story of collecting the objects for the shrine room.  The students had the chance to hear her talk about the opportunity she took to travel and unexpected moments in life that led to her amassing the collection of objects that she eventually decided to send on tour for others to view.

What a unique (and unexpected) experience for students to have in our galleries!

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