UNMAM Curator of Collections and Study Room Initiatives Angel Jiang was one of 11 curators selected to participate in Making, Collecting, and Conserving Prints: A Curatorial Seminar, May 5–9, 2025 in Los Angeles.  

The seminar was hosted by the UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts with support from Getty through The Paper Project Initiative. Designed for early- to mid-career curators, the seminar aims to provide practical skills and critical knowledge often missing from academic training. 

It combined hands-on and technical study with cross-disciplinary discussions based in museum and library print collections, conservation labs and printmaking studios. Participants met with curators, conservators, printers, artists, arts workers and others to think expansively about the potential and significance of their curatorial work in the field of prints. 

Immersion in the L.A. Printmaking Community 

The in-person program immersed participants in Los Angeles’s vibrant printmaking and museum community. The itinerary included an intaglio printmaking practicum at Gemini G.E.L., behind-the-scenes access to the Hammer Museum, the Getty Research Institute and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Prints and Drawings Department, and visits to prominent print shops including Mixografia, Cirrus Gallery, and Self Help Graphics & Art. 

“The experience was incredible,” Jiang said. “It was important to gain technical knowledge, not just about the history of prints, but about how they are made.” Although she has worked with prints for years, the seminar’s hands-on components, including making an intaglio print, deepened her understanding of processes and their nuances. 

While she has studied and taught the work of many featured printmakers, Jiang had not visited their print studios. “Seeing how print shops are laid out and organized, you get a sense of how they operate the presses, how many people are there, the division of spaces,” she said. 

Equally inspiring was the time set aside for meaningful conversations with curators, printers, conservators and artists. “We are all already committed to the medium – we love prints. Being with a group of people who all felt that way was reenergizing.” 

Expanding Impact at UNMAM and Beyond

The seminar also expanded Jiang’s professional network and laid the groundwork for future collaborations. “We realized that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. If something is working, we were encouraged to share that,” Jiang says.  

She noted that what she learned will help address resource gaps at UNMAM, particularly in conservation, as New Mexico does not have a paper conservation lab. 

The experience, Jiang said, also reaffirmed UNMAM’s strengths. “Because of how our team is structured here – we’re small, we’re very nimble, we’re open to new ideas – that creates a lot of opportunity. There’s a lot of ways to be creative at this museum,” she says. For example, she taught a seminar on Postwar American prints and drawings last year in the Art Department at UNM that complemented a Spring 2025 UNMAM exhibition on Helen Frankenthaler’s prints; both the course and exhibition were supported by the Frankenthaler Prints Initiative. 

“I think one thing we also do well is we work with the resources we have,” she added. “We have a remarkable collection that reflects our relationship with our institution, faculty and students. And we work in a state that supports arts and culture generally.”  

Jiang’s participation in this program directly supports UNMAM’s commitment to steward and interpret its works on paper collection while fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration and professional growth.