Fall 2024
Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and open to the public. All events are subject to change.
August
Continuing Through Oct. 19
William Gropper's America
William Gropper, Joe Magarac, Pittsburgh, 1941-1953, from the American Folklore Series.
William Gropper, Joe Magarac, Pittsburgh, 1941-1953, from the American Folklore Series.
The Trout Gallery, Weiss Center for the Arts
Gallery hours: Mon.–Sat. 10–4; closed on major holidays and Dec. 19–Jan. 4.
Growing up in a working-class Jewish family on the Lower East Side of New York City, American artist William Gropper (1897-1977) spent his career denouncing and satirizing corrupt politicians, bourgeois capitalists, and power-hungry dictators in his artworks and commercial illustrations.
The title of this exhibition is borrowed from his painting William Gropper’s America: Its Folklore (1946), a whimsically didactic map of the U.S. that illustrates legendary and historical figures, from Molly Pitcher to Johnny Appleseed. After prints of this painting were distributed widely by the U.S. State Department, Gropper was subpoenaed by Senator Joseph McCarthy, accused of Communist backing, and subsequently blacklisted. While this exhibition includes one mythological man from Gropper’s American Folklore Series —Joe Magarac of Pittsburgh, who could bend steel with his bare hands—other works on display provide a broader picture of Gropper’s America. Throughout this diverse selection of prints, drawings, and paintings, Gropper reflects on his personal background and political struggles to call out oppression and injustice.
Continuing Through Dec. 20
The Legacy of Two Centuries of Black American Art
Curator David Driskell didn’t include his own artwork in his groundbreaking 1976 exhibition. But the 2024 Trout exhibition places his 2006 lithograph "The Bassist” in a prominent position. The work was gifted to Dickinson by Darlene Morris.
Curator David Driskell didn’t include his own artwork in his groundbreaking 1976 exhibition. But the 2024 Trout exhibition places his 2006 lithograph "The Bassist” in a prominent position. The work was gifted to Dickinson by Darlene Morris.
The Trout Gallery, Weiss Center for the Arts
Gallery hours: Mon.–Sat. 10–4; closed on major holidays and Dec. 19–Jan. 4.
This exhibition celebrates the legacy of David Driskell’s groundbreaking 1976 exhibition Two Centuries of Black American Art, which provided audiences with a remarkably comprehensive survey of significant works, broke cultural barriers and had an enduring impact on generations of artists. Featured artists include Margaret Burroughs, Elizabeth Catlett, Allan Rohan Crite, Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Hale Woodruff, Alma Thomas, William Henry Johnson, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Dox Thrash and Clementine Hunter, among others.
This exhibition is not a reconstruction of Driskell’s Two Centuries, but rather celebrates Driskell’s championing of Black art, history and culture.
This is one in a series of American art exhibitions created through a multi-year, multi-institutional partnership formed by the Philadelphia Museum of Art as part of the Art Bridges Cohort Program.
Learn more about this exhibition: "Celebrating Black Excellence"
See associated symposium on Nov. 9.
September
Continuing Through Oct. 19
William Gropper's America
The Trout Gallery, Weiss Center for the Arts
Gallery hours: Mon.–Sat. 10–4; closed on major holidays and Dec. 19–Jan. 4.
View full listing above.
Continuing Through Dec. 20
The Legacy of Two Centuries of Black American Art
The Trout Gallery, Weiss Center for the Arts
Gallery hours: Mon.–Sat. 10–4; closed on major holidays and Dec. 19–Jan. 4.
Learn more about this exhibition.
See associated symposium on Nov. 9.
Sept. 12, 7 p.m.
The Jane L. and Robert H. Weiner Lecture in the Arts
Rubendall Recital Hall, Weiss Center for the Arts
Sarah Lewis, the founder of Vision & Justice, is the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities and an associate professor of African and African American studies at Harvard University. She is the author of The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America (Harvard University Press), the bestseller The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery (Simon & Schuster), and the forthcoming book Vision & Justice (One World/Random House).
Lewis is also the editor of the award-winning volume Vision & Justice (Aperture magazine) and an anthology on the work of Carrie Mae Weems (MIT Press). Her awards include the Infinity Award, the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, a Cullman Fellowship, the Freedom Scholar Award (ASALH), the Arthur Danto/ASA Prize from the American Philosophical Association and the Photography Network Book Prize. Her writing has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Artforum and The New York Review of Books, and her work has been the subject of profiles in publications including The Boston Globe and The New York Times.
This lecture is sponsored by the Department of Art & Art History.
Sept. 14 Through Oct. 9
Opening Reception: Sept. 14, 2-5 p.m.
Eclectic Endeavors: Dickinson College's Class of 1989
Goodyear Gallery, Goodyear Building (Cedar Street entrance), 595 West Louther Street
Gallery hours: Tues.-Fri. 3-5 p.m. and Sat. 2-5 p.m.
Installed in June as part of Alumni Weekend, this 35th-reunion exhibition of Dickinson alumni artists from the class of 1989 has been extended into the fall. The show features paintings by Kim Bobyak, Jennifer Johnson and Michael Weiss; prints by Brad Heckman; wall sculptures by Laura Petrovich-Cheney; and video screenings of several of George Staib’s dance productions. WDCV alumnus and current DJ volunteer Joe George curated a sonic soundtrack for the exhibition reception.
Learn more about this exhibition.
Sept. 17, 7-9 p.m.
Winfield C. Cook Constitution Day Conversation
Picturing the Constitution: Curators, Artists and Scholars in Conversation
In Sam’s Kitchen Towels (Warp and Weft #4), Ban Geul Han weaves together printouts of various legal documents concerning reproductive rights and their intersections with questions of race and class. Image credit: Etienne Frossard.
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium
Join us for this joint presentation and panel discussion with Katherine Gressel, curator of the 2023 Picturing the Constitution exhibition at the Old Stone House (Brooklyn); artist Bang Geul Han; and Steven Mazie, Supreme Court correspondent and political scientist.
To access more information about this event, including a livestream link, please visit the Clarke Forum website.
October
Continuing Through Oct. 9
Eclectic Endeavors: Dickinson College's Class of 1989
Goodyear Gallery, Goodyear Building (Cedar Street entrance), 595 West Louther Street
Gallery hours: Tues.-Fri. 3-5 p.m. and Sat. 2-5 p.m.
Learn more about this exhibition.
Continuing Through Oct. 19
William Gropper's America
The Trout Gallery, Weiss Center for the Arts
Gallery hours: Mon.–Sat. 10–4; closed on major holidays and Dec. 19–Jan. 4.
View full listing above.
Continuing Through Dec. 20
The Legacy of Two Centuries of Black American Art
The Trout Gallery, Weiss Center for the Arts
Gallery hours: Mon.–Sat. 10–4; closed on major holidays and Dec. 19–Jan. 4.
Learn more about this exhibition.
See associated symposium on Nov. 9.
October 23 Through Nov. 11
Opening Reception: October 23, 5:30-7 p.m., Artist Talk at 6 p.m.
2024 Sylvia J. Smith '73 Artist-in-Residence Exhibition: André Leon Gray
Goodyear Gallery, Goodyear Building (Cedar Street entrance), 595 West Louther Street
Gallery hours: Tues.-Fri. 3-5 p.m. and Sat. 2-5 p.m.
André Leon Gray is an interdisciplinary, self-taught artist who seeks to engage the public in a critical dialogue that challenges power structures and disrupts social hierarchies.
Meditating on culture, identity, and history, Gray’s work illuminates the complex duality of remembering and forgetting by constantly rousing the past and present through installations of drawings, paintings, sculptures, collages, and videos. Gray’s multimedia approach involves rigorous research and development, often requiring him to collaborate with research institutions, scholars, architects, visual artists, filmmakers, and musicians. His pre-production techniques often include activating seemingly objects through seemingly random juxtapositions. This improvisational strategy has sonic origins in jazz and be-bop, as well as in freestyle rapping.
You can learn more about this artist at www.andreleongray.art.
November
Continuing Through Nov. 11
2024 Sylvia J. Smith '73 Artist-in-Residence Exhibition: André Leon Gray
Goodyear Gallery, Goodyear Building (Cedar Street entrance), 595 West Louther Street
Gallery hours: Tues.-Fri. 3-5 p.m. and Sat. 2-5 p.m.
- Learn more about this artist at www.andreleongray.art.
- Learn more about this event.
Continuing Through Dec. 20
The Legacy of Two Centuries of Black American Art
The Trout Gallery, Weiss Center for the Arts
Gallery hours: Mon.–Sat. 10–4; closed on major holidays and Dec. 19–Jan. 4.
Learn more about this exhibition.
See associated symposium on Nov. 9.
Nov. 1 Through Jan. 25
Opening Reception: Nov. 1, 5-7 p.m.
Girl in Slacks: Women Artists From The Reading Public Museum
Isabel Bishop, Girl in Slacks , n.d., ink wash drawing, 18 1/8 x 13 in., Reading Public Museum, Gift of the Artist, 1962.430.1.
The Trout Gallery, Weiss Center for the Arts
Gallery hours: Mon.–Sat. 10–4; closed on major holidays and Dec. 19–Jan. 4.
The title of this exhibition is borrowed from a small drawing by Isabel Bishop (American, 1902-1988), who is best known for depicting working women in the 1920s and 1930s. Following Bishop's interest in progressive representations of gender and sexuality, this exhibition considers how women artists challenged conventions and faced issues of sexism, racism, and identity in their work. On display are works by artists Käthe Kollwitz (German, 1867-1945), Louise Nevelson (American, 1899-1988), Françoise Gilot (French, 1921-2023), Adrian Piper (American, b. 1960) and Lorna Simpson (American, b. 1960), among others, on loan from the Reading Public Museum.
Nov. 9, 3-5 p.m.
Symposium: Reflecting on the Legacy of David Driskell
Rubendall Recital Hall
Join us as we celebrate the legacy of artist and curator David Driskell. This symposium will feature presentations by Curlee Raven Holton, artist, scholar, and founding director of Raven Fine Art Editions; Adrienne Childs, independent scholar, art historian, and senior consulting curator at The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; and Julie McGee, associate professor of Africana studies and art history, University of Delaware. The symposium will be moderated by Jerry Philogene, associate professor of Black studies at Middlebury College.
Nov. 20 Through Dec. 12
Opening Reception: Nov. 20, 5:30-7 p.m.
Senior Studio Art Majors' Works-in-Progress Exhibition
Goodyear Gallery, Goodyear Building (Cedar Street entrance)
Gallery Hours: Tuesday–Friday 3–5 p.m., Saturday 2–5 p.m.
This exhibition offers a preview of artworks made by Dickinson studio art majors during the fall semester, as part of their yearlong senior seminar. The students share their progress as they prepare for a more expansive thesis exhibition that will be on display at The Trout Gallery in spring 2025.
December
Continuing Through Dec. 12
Senior Studio Art Majors' Works-in-Progress Exhibition
Goodyear Gallery, Goodyear Building (Cedar Street entrance)
Gallery Hours: Tuesday–Friday 3–5 p.m., Saturday 2–5 p.m.
Continuing Through Dec. 20
The Legacy of Two Centuries of Black American Art
The Trout Gallery, Weiss Center for the Arts
Gallery hours: Mon.–Sat. 10–4; closed on major holidays and Dec. 19–Jan. 4.
Learn more about this exhibition: "Celebrating Black Excellence"
Nov. 1 Through Jan. 25
Opening Reception: Nov. 1, 5-7 p.m.
Girl in Slacks: Women Artists From The Reading Public Museum
The Trout Gallery, Weiss Center for the Arts
Gallery hours: Mon.–Sat. 10–4; closed on major holidays and Dec. 19–Jan. 4.
View event details above.
Events are subject to change.
Discover more compelling public arts events with Dickinson’s Calendar of Arts.