Two new exhibitions have been installed in the University of Wyoming Art Museum. While one focuses on systemic racism, consumerism, and environmental degradation, the other focuses on specific classes being taught this spring.
Four new installations in the Pat Guthrie Special Exhibitions Teaching Gallery have been installed. Each installation complements one of three different types of classes being taught: general art, child development, and philosophy.
Professor Sarah Lee is using art to introduce new perspectives to students in her child development class.
Of the gallery, she said that “I feel like it’s a great opportunity for my students to be able to see more of child development in the world around them.”
The five pieces on display for the class include depictions of dreaming children, a country school, and other artwork showing the different experiences of children around the world.
“The works of art are something we don’t look at in the world of child development and that’s part of why I was so excited about the Pat Guthrie exhibition,” Lee said.
Lee emphasized the importance of viewing the physical artwork.
“To be able to look at them face to face and see the size and to see the depth of the colors was just really an enriching experience,” Lee said. “Hopefully it will expand their thinking in terms of child development, in terms of art, and there’s more to see in art than a pretty picture and there’s a lot we can learn from art.”
Lee identified with how the pieces depicted diverse experiences and perspectives.
“It shows so much diversity that became important to me to include to make sure my students see and experience, even if it’s that visual stimulus, the notion that we are a diverse society,” Lee said.
Another professor, named Tessa Dallarosa who is teaching a contemporary art class, is using maps on display in the gallery to help art students gain new perspectives on what mapping looks like.
“I am really challenging students to think about mapping in an expansive way, to reimagine what it can be,” Dallarosa said.
Dallarosa also explained that seeing the artwork in person was not only a good experience, but a way to notice more within the art.
“I think that you couldn’t really tell me that this is some nice paper- there’s a material quality here that probably wouldn’t read digitally still being able to see that,” Dallarosa said.
The other new exhibition that has been recently installed is titled, “Contemporary in Black + White: Selections from the Art Museum Collection.”
“This exhibition started just kind of as a fun way to promote the gala, and actually what came out is a really, really cool exhibition,” said museum curator Michelle Sunset.
“Using the contemporary work and the other constraints of only looking at black and white work pulled together kind of a broad swath of the collection that’s just so fascinating together,” said Sunset.
All of the pieces used for the exhibition come from the art museum’s collection. As for how the museum acquires artwork, Curator of Academic Engagement Raechel Cook said that much of the art comes through gifts and donations.
Both the Pat Guthrie exhibit and the Contemporary in Black and White exhibit will be on display through the end of the spring semester.
