Start Here! - ARTH495/595 - Curating an Exhibition (Fall 2025)

Fall 2025: "How Did the Pharaohs Become Pop Icons?"

This guide includes resources to support Dr. Williamson's Fall 2025 "Curating an Exhibit" class.

Research Artworks & Themes: Strategies for finding books and articles on Egyptian art and popular culture, as well as recommended readings
Learn about Curatorial Practice: Recommended sources for curatorial work including theoretical and practical issues, from conceptual development through label writing.
Write & Cite: General guidance for writing labels and citing sources in your catalog entries
Get Help: Make an appointment with me or other librarians for further assistance

Cover for "Pharaoh," a strategic city-building game released for PC in 1999.

General Strategies

Want to find sources on a specific topics, or find more sources on a similar topic?
- Look for subject headings. Subject headings are added to all books and some articles in the library's catalog. Look under the Details section on a book's record or after the abstract in article databases.
Want to find examples of exhibitions or how artworks have been thematically organized?
- Add the terms "exhibits" or "exhibition catalogs" to your keyword searches (e.g., "ancient egypt" AND "exhibits")
Looking for a basic introduction or overview of an arts topic?
- Use Oxford Art Online (linked below) to find artist biographies, overviews of themes and movements, and bibliographies of recommended books or resources for those topics.

Oxford Art Online

Scholarly art encyclopedia. Includes over 200,000 reference articles on every aspect of the visual arts from prehistory to the present, with selected images, written by over 6,800 scholars. Serves as the access point for Grove Art Online, the Benezit Dictionary of Artists, and other Oxford art reference resources.

The Basics: Find Sources at Mason (and Beyond!)

Search the Mason Libraries collections for books, articles, and more in one simple search. You can also access this search box on the library's homepage.

Advanced Search

As a Mason student, you can also find and borrow materials not owned by our library:

Search in WRLC: WRLC is composed of academic libraries in the D.C. Metro. You can search and borrow from these collections directly through our catalog.
- See a quick tutorial on advanced searching & WRLC searching here
Search in Worldcat: Worldcat is a catalog of library collections from across the globe. Search in Worldcat to identify books, articles, or other materials that may not be available at Mason.
- After searching, use Interlibrary Loan to request the item. See a quick tutorial on Interlibrary Loan here.