Every fall, the Chazen Museum of Art employs graduate students in key roles that support the museum’s mission of connecting people and art through teaching, research, and community programming.
For the 2025–26 academic year, three talented scholars—Tarah Connolly, Richard Ellis, and Xiaoyan Jiang—have come to the Chazen as a public engagement fellow and project assistants. Their work ranges from developing digital resources and gallery interpretation to facilitating class visits and contributing to curatorial projects. With backgrounds in education, art history, and interdisciplinary museum practice, they add to the richness and quality of the Chazen’s work while gaining hands-on experience that will shape their future.
“The work of our project assistants and engagement fellow is so important to the Chazen’s mission,” said Chief Engagement Officer Berit Ness. “They not only strengthen our capacity to serve students, faculty, and the public, but also enrich our team with fresh ideas, research expertise, and a spirit of curiosity.”
Tarah Connolly
Tarah Connolly
A third-year PhD candidate in curriculum and instruction in the School of Education, Tarah Connolly is beginning her dissertation on museum education, with a particular focus on children’s museums and their role in broader educational ecosystems.
At the Chazen, Connolly will work with Ness in supporting efforts to design interactive spaces in the soon-to-be reinstalled collection galleries, as well as develop new guides to support the overall visitor experience.
This work expands her experience beyond children’s museums and science centers into the world of art museums. “I see myself pursuing a variety of career paths related to museum education, but I value being at the intersection of research and practice. An academic museum is the right place to explore that,” she says.
Connolly is especially excited to test new strategies for playful, hands-on engagement. “I’m looking forward to prototyping ideas with visitors and developing ways to spark curiosity in the niches, hallways, and mezzanines of the museum.”
Her position is co-supported by UW–Madison’s Center for the Humanities.
Richard Ellis
Richard Ellis
As an academic engagement project assistant, Richard Ellis will collaborate with Ness and Academic Coordinator Mieke Miller to support university class visits to the museum’s galleries and study rooms. Using methods in object-centered learning, he will focus on collaborating with instructors to develop class visits tailored to the goals of an individual class.
Ellis is a second-year PhD candidate in art history whose research interests include Islamic art and architecture, Persian manuscripts, and contemporary and modern art from the Middle East. This position is a direct bridge to his long-term aspirations. “This role provides me with hands-on experience leading educational programming that is integral to the mission of the Chazen, and it directly relates to my career goals of becoming both a museum professional and an educator,” he says.
Ellis is eager to work across disciplines: “I’m really looking forward to collaborating with students and instructors from other fields to discover new ways of engaging with objects in the museum’s collection.”
Xiaoyan Jiang
Xiaoyan Jiang
Now entering her third year of a PhD program in art history, Xiaoyan Jiang’s research interests include twentieth-century European visual culture, with a focus on German modernism and its circulation through migration and diaspora.
At the Chazen, Jiang will work with Chief Curator Katherine Alcauskas, Van Vleck Curator of Works on Paper James Wehn, and Permanent Collection Reinstallation Project Associate Janine Yorimoto Boldt to support the reinstallation of the Chazen’s permanent collection galleries. She will research artworks and collaborate with curators to shape gallery projects and assist Chazen curatorial staff in organizing scholarly bibliographies for each gallery, which will later be made available to faculty and instructors.
“We’re thrilled to have Xiaoyan return for a second year as a project assistant,” said Alcauskas. “With her knowledge of German, Chinese, and Russian, Xiaoyan has made invaluable contributions to our understanding of the artworks in our collection and their interpretation.”
Jiang said her role at the Chazen strengthens her ability to bridge scholarship with exhibition development—skills that are increasingly valuable for careers integrating teaching, research, and curatorial practice.
For Jiang, the year ahead holds dual promise: advancing dissertation research while contributing to the reimagining of the Chazen’s permanent collection. “This work allows me to engage with a wide range of objects and narratives, expanding both my scholarly perspective and the scope of my research.”