Gathered Together: Black Artists and the Collage Aesthetic

On view in Mechanical Hall Gallery through May 14

The medium of collage offers artists an inventive means of constructing a work of art, often incorporating everyday materials and found objects, such as newspapers, photographs and fabric. This exhibition explores the practice and visual strategies of collage, highlighting the University's collection of African American art.

The exhibition, guest curated by graduate student Danielle Canter, presents the work of 26 Black artists who have engaged with the technique and aesthetic of collage from the 1970s to today. Working across figuration and abstraction, these artists examine a wide array of subject matter, from the profoundly personal to the social and political.

Grounded Innovation: Pueblo Arts of Clay

On view in Old College Gallery through May 14

In the Pueblo nations of Arizona and New Mexico, pottery is an ever-changing art form. Visit this exhibition to learn how contemporary Pueblo artists innovate to strengthen bonds with their ancestors and homelands, rather than breaking them.

The exhibition recognizes how the artists’ relationships to family, ecologies and the clay itself shapes their final work. The pottery on view incorporates groundbreaking techniques, materials and designs while maintaining ties to land, culture and history. These dazzling pieces were created for a global art market centered in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The exhibition was guest curated by graduate student Victoria Sunnergren and a curatorial collective of 10 students from the fall 2021 seminar, “Curating Contemporary Native Art,” taught by Professor Jessica Horton.

Art, Artifacts and Specimens from the Collectors Cabinet

On view in Old College Gallery through May 14

First organized during the Italian Renaissance, collectors cabinets were rooms full of various works of art, natural history objects and antiquities. These cabinets became a popular way to display objects from travels or items of personal interest. Collectors evolved into curators, classifying and interpreting the wide-ranging collections. In the same fashion, these cabinets or rooms of objects were the genesis of today's museums.

This exhibition encourages the viewer to think about the connections among what might today seem to be randomly arranged things. With more than 100 objects and specimens on view, the exhibition pays homage to a traditional cabinet while making the concept accessible to all through a 21st century lens.

Faces and Facets – Crystals to Gemstones

On view in the Mineralogical Museum in Penny Hall through May 14

There are approximately 5,700 known minerals, and only about 75 are considered gemstones—attractive minerals known for their color. Most gemstones are transparent and, once cut and polished, many are used in jewelry. Gemstone collections often contain soft or rare materials, but the gemstones used in jewelry need to be hard and durable.

Jewelers, online shopping networks and gemstone guides have made it challenging to sort through the names of gemstones. Diamond is one of the few gemstones known by the same name as the mineral. Other minerals have varietal gemstone names, often based on color. The mineral beryl is an example—emerald is the green chromium variety, aquamarine is the blue green variety, and heliodor is the yellow variety. Similarly, ruby and sapphire are varieties of the same mineral, corundum. Visit this exhibition to explore the world of gemstones and the minerals from which they derive.

Multiple Middles: Maps from Early Modern Times

On view in the Special Collections Gallery in Morris Library through May 14

What should be in the middle of a world map? Mapmakers have grappled with this question for centuries. This exhibition explores various approaches to that question with maps from the Early Modern Period.

Extending from the 16th to the 18th century, the maps, atlases and travel accounts on display push geographical and conceptual centers to the side and emphasize alternate middle points. As a result, previously unfamiliar histories and visual elements come to the fore, revealing the lesser-known stories of this historically significant cartographic period.

The exhibition is a result of a three-year collaborative project between the Library, Museums and Press and the Department of Art History. It was curated by a team of six graduate students, and features original research videos from additional students.

Everyday People: Highlights of the Civil Rights Movement from the Beverly Axelrod Papers

On view in the Lincoln Exhibition Case in Morris Library through May 14

The popular narrative of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s focuses on a handful of larger-than-life figures. In reality, the legal and social advances of the movement were not brought about by a chosen few, but fought for by innumerable individuals who gave their time, skills, careers and sometimes even their lives to their cause.

This exhibition shines a spotlight on the labor and experiences of ground-level participants in the movement. It highlights the difficulties they encountered, the strategies they employed, and the ways in which they took it upon themselves to do what they could to make a difference.