Welcoming Guest Speaker Anne Ricculli G’18
October 2024 – Drew University’s Caspersen School of Graduate Studies held its annual hybrid fall Arts & Letters Salon welcoming PhD alum Anne Ricculli G’18, director of exhibits and collections at the Morris Museum, as the special guest speaker.
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Ricculli’s talk, Encountering Historic Technology in an AI World: Museums as Spaces for Exploration, offered information on the history surrounding the Murtogh D. Guinness Collection of historic mechanical musical instruments and automata housed at the Morris Museum, as well as the significant link between art and technology.
Murta D. Guinness of the Guinness Brewery family collected mechanical musical instruments and automata acquired at auction and antique shops in London and New York from the 1930s to the 1970s, a collection of approximately 750 pieces.
“I argue that technology objects in museums can introduce visitors to systems, tools, and strategies that the visitor can use to evaluate authenticity,” said Ricculli. “Our visitors today are immersed in an AI world.”
“There are challenges with AI, such as inherent bias and misinformation, just two of the myriad of concerns about artificial intelligence programming and the use of large language models to generate content,” continues Ricculli.
The Morris Museum acquired the popular collection in 2004 after a competitive international bid. The collection is so expansive, Morris Museum added a 4,000 square foot permanent gallery that houses 150 objects, with the remaining 600 in visible, climate-controlled storage.
Attendees were given the opportunity to engage in conversation with Ricculli to learn more about the exhibition and the tools for discernment that object-based learning can offer in the age of AI at the close of her presentation.
The evening concluded with a reception in the Seminary Hall Atrium for in-person attendees.
Drew’s Arts & Letters, celebrating its 50th anniversary, is an interdisciplinary graduate liberal studies program offering courses in seven concentrations that build on Drew’s strengths in the humanities, the creative/performing arts, religious studies, and teacher education. Through small seminar-style classes that meet in person, online, and in hybrid formats, the program enables students to customize each course of study to meet their individual goals.
The event was made possible by the generous support of Werner Kofler T’03, G’05. The Werner Kofler Arts & Letters Endowment was endowed in 2011 to provide a Doctor of Letters discussion group for the Arts & Letters program in the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies.
