Gallery Education
The Atkinson Gallery is a Learning Laboratory.
Education Programs:
Student Artist Exhibits:
Professional Artist Exhibits:
Education Programs:
- Gallery tours & discussions: The gallery director leads College classes and community groups in discussions of current exhibits with a focus on visual literacy and critical thinking. Recent groups tours have been from the Studio Art, Art History, English and Spanish departments, as well as from regional high schools and senior centers.
- Artist lectures: The gallery, with the art department, also hosts a series of public lectures by artists and art historians regarding their work and current issues in the field.
- In-class critiques with gallery director/visiting artists: The gallery director and visiting artists lead and/or participate in in-class critiques of student work — providing the experience of professional studio visits for our students.
- In-class lectures on contemporary art related to course subject area: The gallery director collaborates with faculty across campus to plan custom contemporary art lectures that directly relate to their courses. For example, for an English class beginning to read, Middle Passage, the gallery director led a facilitated conversation about five contemporary artists who address the legacy and impact of slavery in their work.
- Internship program: Each year an intern is selected through a competitive process to work in the gallery for 19.5 hours/week. The intern gains hands-on training in curating, marketing and arts administration.
Student Artist Exhibits:
- Annual Student Exhibition: Each year we offer students the real life opportunity of participating in a professionally juried exhibition — just like those they’ll apply to as emerging artists when they graduate.
- Atkinson Gallery Annex: The gallery intern curates — from conceptualization to execution — exhibitions of fellow students’ work for the Gallery Annex currently located in the John Dunn Gourmet Dining Room.
Professional Artist Exhibits:
- Each year, the Atkinson Gallery presents 5 exhibits of work by professional contemporary artists from around the region, the nation and the world. These exhibits provide students with the opportunity to engage with expert examples of what is taught in the classroom.
