This space is also devoted to discussing a breadth of subjects and dilemmas emerging scholars and students in the art historical discipline (like myself) have often encountered and may even continue to encounter. Here, I’ll offer tips and stimulate conversations on matters such as academic writing, productive studying, argument formulation and defense, and the usage of specific methodological approaches in research.

As such, this space is as much yours as it is mine as it relates to the sharing of thoughts, ideas, and feelings on these aformentioned topics. It is my hope that this blog is not a mere one-way street; I aim for this space to be one of reciprocal conversation and engagement and overall human connection. So please feel free to showcase your work and become actively involved in a community this is as drawn to the worlds of academia and art history as myself!

The Charette Cabinet is managed and edited by me, Mason McBreairty, Cultural Heritage Steward of the Musée culturel du Mont-Carmel and emerging postgraduate student at The Courtauld Institute of Art, whose studies will center on the fabrication and entanglement of the arts and peoples of France in the early modern era with those of the Levant, North Africa, eastern Asia, and the Maritimes of Canada [Acadia].

To get regular updates on posts and newletters, click the ‘Sign me up!’ button located on the page’s sidebar. Consider connecting with me on LinkedIn or Academia.edu!

Everything has a cost even if it is not immediately obvious. If you would like support me to keep The Charette Cabinet afloat–which I maintain with my own personal funds, visit the Support page to learn how you can help (and benefit yourself too!)

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The Fine Print

I do not accept and will thus refuse any paid endorsements to be published on this site. Please do no write to me with requests to have advertisements displayed here, nor propose or supply guest posts related to the promotion of products. I do accept books and articles to review; you can email me about such materials via my email address listed on my LinkedIn profile.

The Charette Cabinet is a shared community forum that promotes discourse and dialogue premised on respect and inclusiveness. As such, this blog will not tolerate, and will therefore make efforts to omit, any and all commentary and engagement(s) made in this space that directly make or otherwise promote narratives and remarks purposely constructed to incite hatred, prejudice, or discrimination of any kind.

Photos on this site are either my own, given with consent from their creator(s) for public use, copyright free and/or sourced from databases such as Unsplash.

Who Am I

My name is Mason McBreairty. I was born in the far northern reaches of Aroostook County in Maine, United States–a region not only rich in French Acadian heritage, but a region that is the ancestral and contemporary homeland of the Maliseet (Wolastoqiyik) people. The broader place we now call northeastern Maine is (and will always be) home to the sovereign people of the Wabanaki Confederacy, which include the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Abenaki, and Mi’kmaq peoples.

I am an emerging academic and practitioner in the art historical discipline whose interests lay principally in early modern French visual and material histories, which were nurtured during my studies at the at the University of Southern Maine and during my experiences at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art.

I am currently a Curatorial Assistant and Cultural Heritage Steward at the Musée culturel du Mont-Carmel located in the quaint village of Lille, Maine, which just straddles Canada’s maritime province of New Brunswick in the Vallée Saint-Jean. In my efforts of supporting this architecturally significant site rich in French Acadian history, I have led the institution’s project of renewing its online presence, helped devise and curate museum programming, furthered its collections management practices, and have supported the institution’s restoration and preservation initiatives. Previous experiental opportunities in museums, galleries, and libraries proved instrumental in the development and fortification of essential skills and competencies which I have persistently exercised during my tenure at the Musée.

I aspire to write scholarly articles and books, assist with curatorial design, support exhibition catalogues and entries, and continue to locate new and invigorating opportunities that uniquely align with my academic and professional interests – all amidst my administering of The Charette Cabinet.

For more information about me, a selection from my resume is available for review below. Feel free to connect with me to learn more!

Qualifications

• MA History of Art. The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, U.K. (Matriculated, 2025-2026)
• Bachelor of Arts, Economics. Minor, History of Art. University of Southern Maine, Portland, Maine, U.S. Awarded summa cum laude, 2024.
• Bachelor of Arts, Social Work. University of Maine at Presque Isle, Presque Isle, Maine, U.S. Withdrawn/Transferred, 2022.

Professional Memberships & Affiliations

• Historians of Eighteenth Century Art & Architecture
• Association of Historians of Nineteenth Century Art
• The Decorative Arts Trust
• Association for Art History
• College Art Association

Awards, Honors, & Scholarships

• Pathways to Careers Student Support Grant. Harold Alfond Foundation, University of Maine System, 2024.
• Awarded Summa Cum Laude. College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. University of Southern Maine, 2024.
• Donald L. Dimick Scholarship Award. University of Southern Maine, 2023-24.
• President’s Transfer Scholar Award. University of Southern Maine, 2022-24.
• Park Memorial Scholarship Award. University of Maine at Presque Isle, 2021.
• Dean’s List. University of Southern Maine, 2022-24.
• Dean’s List. University of Maine at Presque Isle, 2020-22.

Exhibitions

• La vie encore: An Exhibit of St. John Valley Artefacts, Musée culturel du Mont-Carmel, Lille, ME. Cocurator, Cultural Heritage Steward. June 1999 – ongoing, permanent exhibition.
• Lee Krasner: Geometries of Expression, Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME. Curatorial Intern, Educator. 08/01/2024 – 11/17/2024
• Domestic Modernism: Russell Cheney and Mid-Century American Painting, Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME. Curatorial Intern, Educator. 08/01/2024 – 11/17/2024. Exhibition catalogue.
• Anthony Cudahy: Spinneret, Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME. Curatorial Intern, Educator. 04/12/2024 – 07/21/2024. Exhibition catalogue.
• 2024 BFA / BA Exhibition, Gorham Art Gallery, University of Southern Maine, Gorham, ME. Gallery Assistant, Cocurator/Organizer. 04/11/2024 – 04/27/2024.
• Holding Space: The 2024 Juried Student Exhibition, Gorham Art Gallery, University of Southern Maine, Gorham, ME. Gallery Assistant, Cocurator/Organizer. 03/07/2024 – 03/30/2024.
• (t)here but not: The 2024 Art Department Show, Gorham Art Gallery, University of Southern Maine, Gorham, ME. Gallery Assistant, Cocurator/Organizer. 01/25/2024 – 02/15/2024.
• Embodying Softness / Excavating Delight, Gorham Art Gallery, University of Southern Maine, Gorham, ME. Gallery Assistant. 10/12/2023 – 12/09/2023.
• 2023 BFA / BA Exhibition, Gorham Art Gallery, University of Southern Maine, Gorham, ME. Gallery Assistant. 04/06/2023 – 04/29/2023.
• Parallel Convergence: The 2023 Juried Student Exhibition, Gorham Art Gallery, University of Southern Maine, Gorham, ME. Gallery Assistant. 03/09/2023 – 03/25/2023.
• Hidden Stories, Gorham Art Gallery, University of Southern Maine, Gorham, ME. Gallery Assistant. 01/18/2023 – 02/18/2023.
• Pulped Under Pressure, Gorham Art Gallery, University of Southern Maine, Gorham, ME. Gallery Assistant. 09/08/2022 – 12/10/2022.

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The Cabinet’s Design

Just as the aims of this blog are quite distinct, so too are its title and emblem.

My maternal grandmother’s surname, Charette, and a sketched composure of the ostrich fern fiddlehead – a unique and fleeting spring delicacy native to my beloved home of northern Maine – are markers of the blog. These motifs were chosen as they have developed and thus bear a deep resonance with the cultural lineage and intimate geographies that have shaped my identity and personhood.

Charette carries an echo of ancestral memory. My nana, whose parents and grandparents were French Acadian Roman Catholics, grew up speaking only French until about the age of six, when the English language was forcibly imposed upon her by schoolteachers intent on assimilation and ‘Americanization’. The stories she has so generously shared with me from this time, and the rippling effects they have had upon her since, have deeply shaped my understanding of cultural continuity and loss. Her experiences are not just familial memories; they mirror other countless broader histories of linguistic and cultural suppression and erasure which I have explored in former studies and hope to continue to underscore here – amongst many other subjects.

Like my nana – (whom I am a literal carbon-copy of!) – I was born and brought up by families descendent of Roman Catholic French Acadian and Irish emigrants whose roots and identities have intimate connection(s) to the verdant borderland that is southern New Brunswick and northern Maine. The traditions, passions, and pastimes we share reserve a special connection to this region’s woodlands and waters; from starry-night storytelling and quiet nature wandering to preparing buckweat ployes and and hand harvesting fiddleheads in remote marshy groves for feasts welcoming the warm season’s arrival. A celebration of togetherness and loving kindness has always been tightly knit and deeply felt within my family, and especially, if not uniquely, within the wider communities from which we are linked.

In integrating my nana’s surname and a sketched composure of the ostrich fern fiddlehead into the blog’s title and emblem, a sort of ode to my familial heritage and personal upbringing is implicit. The Charette Cabinet aims to further our familial legacy of togetherness, for this blog is a space that weaves a spirit of intellectual curiosity, cultural memory, and critical dialogue, serving as a space to gather, to reflect, and to speak.