Hobart and William Smith Colleges

6 March 2015 Destinations: 6 Continents, 38 Countries

The Colleges newest art exhibition, Destinations: 6 Continents, 38 Countries, will open with a reception at the Davis Gallery at Houghton House on Friday, March 6. Among the many art goers to attend the opening will be several student interns who have worked on the exhibit this academic year.

In the fall, Zoe Bradley 16, Jackson Douglass 15 and Tianchu Wu 15 helped select the works in the exhibition and wrote catalog essays. This semester, Jacques Lane 16, Olivia Linville 15, Kaytlynn Lynch 15, Moriah Murphy 15 and Alexandra Warner 16 designed the catalog that features an introductory essay written by Michael Tinkler, associate professor of art and architecture. These five interns also designed and staged the exhibition in the gallery.

The exhibition is composed of works from The Collections of Hobart and William Smith Colleges in an effort to bring together works from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America. The collective diversity of the exhibit seeks to reflect the Colleges continued efforts to create an atmosphere which embraces students and the communitys multiplicity of knowledge and experience.

Destinations is an exhibition designed to highlight the breadth of the Collections of Hobart and William Smith Colleges, says Visual Arts Curator Kathryn Vaughn P08. The exhibition ranges from Pre-Columbian artifacts to paintings made within this decade. Media include both the traditional and the experimental. Within those continents are two pieces from the United States.

The various works in the collection come from different continents and share the unique styles of each region. For example, for North American art, religion, the environment, as well as the eventual influence of various other cultures, are utilized as the core. Due to Asias vast size and population, the art, like Asias inhabitants, represents a myriad of cultures and ideals. And though Australia is a country whose foundation was established by Europeans, the artworks shown are rooted in Aboriginal tradition. The two works in this exhibition from Australia call upon patterned design and naturally occurring pigments to honor the continents original identity.

In experiencing this exhibition, one can consider why we travel to see art. For students of art and architecture, no matter their age, the reason to travel to study is a pursuit of authenticity.

Even when we walk across campus to see art from six out of the seven continents in the Davis Gallery, we are having a different experience than we would on a computer screen, the page of a book, or in a classroom, says Tinkler.

Vaughn adds, This is an exciting exhibition for us since we so rarely get to show such a diversity of art to our community.

The exhibit will be on display through Friday, April 17. It will be closed during spring break, March 14-21. The March 6 reception will be held from 6 8 p.m.

For more information, contact Vaughn at kvaughn@hws.edu.