Current Exhibitions
Live, Laugh, Levavi Oculos: Celebrating a Community Through Time
April 4 – 21, 2024
Using selected works from the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum’s permanent collection and the archives at the Wyndham Robertson Library, student curators put theory into practice in this exhibition which is the culmination of the spring class, “Behind the Scenes at the Museum.” As part of the class, students collaborate and share responsibility for conceptualizing, researching, designing, interpreting, and installing a cohesive exhibition. Participants bring a variety of backgrounds and experience to the class, pursuing various disciplines. Co-instructors are Stephanie Gibson, Professor of Art History, and Jenine Culligan, Director of the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum.
The student curators explain, “We, as Hollins students, live and laugh together over the years, recalling past and present visualizations of our surroundings. This exhibit embodies the idea of Levavi Oculos to lift thine eyes to the views around us.”
IMAGE: Ron Boehmer (American, b. 1949), Untitled (preliminary sketch for Tinker Creek), 1989-90. Oil on toned paper. Gift of Bill and Linda White. Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University, 2016.009.
Expanding Narratives: Conversations with the Collection
currently available online
Faculty members from across academic divisions have collaborated with museum staff to select works from the collection that investigate key course concepts and provide extended access to the individual works of art. Participating departments include art history, biology, classics, English, gender and women studies, history, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and studio art.
Unveiling the Past: Reckoning with Our History of Enslavement at Hollins
currently available online
In spring 2020, students in the Cultural Property, Rights and Museum course began working on an exhibit, Unveiling the Past: Reckoning with Our History of Enslavement at Hollins University, in conjunction with members of the Hollins University Working Group on Slavery and Its Contemporary Legacies. The exhibit examines objects and images held by the University Archives in the Wyndham Robertson Library at Hollins University. Material researched by students are on display in this virtual exhibit. Those working on this exhibit wanted to create a public space to reckon with our Hollins past and give a forum to those who were not given a voice, name, space, or attention in the past. It is the goal of this exhibit to show the lasting effects slavery has had, and continues to have, here; and, to recognize that Hollins continues to benefit from a history of enslavement.
Exploring Visual and Conceptual Space: Student Selections from the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum
currently available online
Using selected works from the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum’s permanent collection, student curators put theory into practice in this virtual exhibit which is the culmination of the spring class, “Behind the Scenes: Principles and Practice.” As part of the class, students collaborate and share responsibility for conceptualizing, researching, designing, and interpreting a cohesive exhibition. Each student selected two works that spoke to them based on academic, personal, and aesthetic interests. The exhibit features works created by well-known artists Giovanni Battista Piranesi, John James Audubon, Käthe Kollwitz, Paul Klee, Salvador Dalí, and Andy Warhol, as well as works by Hedley Fitton, Jean Lurçat, Paule Gobillard, Eudora Welty, and others.
When placed together, these works form an image of the Eleanor D. Wilson collection as a small but artistically and historically rich collection – especially when seen through the eyes of Hollins student curators Madelyn Farrow, Faith Herrington, Sylvia Lane, Mairwen Minson, Kaiya Ortiz, Valerie Sargeant, and Maddie Zanie.
Upcoming Exhibitions
2024 Senior Majors Exhibition
May 2-19, 2024
This exhibition features the work of members of the Hollins University class of 2024 majoring in studio art: Caroline Collins, Katrina Dodge, Amanda T. Dowd, Lex Eakle, A. Carol Ennis, Alejandre R.V. Favela, Fiona Grannan, Jazmyn Long, Mary Marshall Martin, Raine E. Matos, Gabriella Marie S. Pedicone, SG Pratt, Ryn A. Ruiz, Althea T. Slattery, Seaira C. Siv, Regan Tate, Priscila Santiago Hernandez, and Finn Webster. The exhibition is the final requirement for art students earning their Bachelor of Arts at Hollins, and is the capstone experience of their yearlong senior project.
2024 Ceramics Post-Baccalaureate Exhibition
May 2-19, 2024
This exhibition features the work of the inaugural members of the Hollins University Ceramics Post-Baccalaureate Certificate Program: Beth Moody and Tara Wolff.