Santa Clara University

SCU Stories - Karen Kienzle

SCU Stories

de Saisset
The de Saisset is an intimate, high-quality museum located on the SCU campus.

Seeing the business side of the art world

Karen Kienzle

Assistant Director for Exhibitions, Education, and Community Outreach at the de Saisset Museum

Karen Kienzle works at the on-campus museum, the de Saisset. Its intimate gallery spaces showcase rotating exhibits as well as the permanent collection, which maintains an impressive library of California history pieces, modernist prints, and photography. 

Like every museum, SCU’s de Saisset carefully weighs every acquisition decision. In recent years, with Kienzle’s guidance, students have assisted in this process.

For a number of recent purchases, students in the art and art history department researched possible pieces and collections, and presented their reasoning and recommendations to the museum. The students and Kienzle worked with assistant art history professor Kate Morris and associate art history professor Andrea Pappas to evaluate the pieces.

The de Saisset has an added challenge in that the museum doesn't typically have an acquisitions budget. Students learn about grants and funding as well. “It’s such a positive process,” Kienzle says. “The students participate in this monumental decision. And in the end, we’ve been surprised and delighted by what’s come to the museum because of student effort.”

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