Two new exhibitions have been installed at the University of Wyoming Art Museum. While one focuses on systemic racism, consumerism, and environmental degradation, the other focuses on specific courses being taught this spring.
Four new installations in the Pat Guthrie Special Exhibitions Teaching Gallery have been installed. Each installation complements one of three types of courses taught: General Art, Child Development, and Philosophy.
Professor Sarah Lee uses art to introduce new perspectives to students in her child development class.
About the gallery, she said, “I feel like it’s a great opportunity for my students to see more of child development in the world around them.
The five pieces on display for the classroom include depictions of children dreaming, a country school and other artwork showing the different experiences of children around the world.
“Artwork is 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 exhibit,” Lee said.
Lee emphasized the importance of seeing the physical artwork.
“Being able to look at them face to face and see the size and the depth of the colors was really an enriching experience,” Lee said. “I hope it broadens their thinking in terms of child development, in terms of art, and there’s more to art than a pretty picture and we can learn a lot from art. ”
Lee identified with the way the pieces depicted diverse experiences and perspectives.
“It shows so much diversity that it’s become important for me to include it to make sure my students see and experience, even if it’s that visual stimulus, the notion that we’re a diverse society,” Lee said. .
Another professor, named Tessa Dallarosa, who teaches a contemporary art class, uses maps on display in the gallery to help art students gain new perspectives on what cartography looks like.
“I really challenge students to think deeply about cartography, 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 in the art.
“I think you can’t really tell me this is beautiful paper – there’s a material quality here that probably wouldn’t be read digitally while being able to see this,” Dallarosa said.
The other new exhibit recently installed is “Contemporary in Black + White: Selections from the Art Museum’s Collection.”
“This exhibit started out as a fun way to promote the gala, and what actually came out of it is a really, really cool exhibit,” said museum curator Michelle Sunset.
“Using contemporary work and the other constraints of only looking at black and white work has brought together a sort of broad swath of the collection that is so compelling together,” Sunset said.
All the pieces used for the exhibition come from the collection of the art museum. As for how the museum acquires art, curator of academic engagement Raechel Cook said much of the art comes from gifts and donations.
The Pat Guthrie exhibit and the Contemporary in Black and White exhibit will be on view until the end of the spring semester.
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