Past Events

2024–2025 Events

Gallery Talk: A World Away, with Hunter Barnes

Wednesday, June 19, 2024 | 5:00–7:00 PM
Middlebury College Museum of Art, Upper Gallery
 

Please join us for a gallery talk by photographer Hunter Barnes as he discusses the exhibition A World Away and shares the details of his experience in Sri Lanka.

A reception with refreshments will follow in the Mahaney Arts Center Lower Lobby from 5:30 to 7:00pm.

Moderated Discussion: Apocalypse Road Show

Tuesday, July 23, 2024 | 5:00–6:30 PM
Middlebury College Museum of Art, Johnson Gallery
 

Director Richard Saunders will moderate a conversation between Garrett MacLean ’99 and John Bell ’73 as they discuss the special exhibition Apocalypse Road Show: On Tour with the Bread and Puppet Theater. Garrett MacLean is a professional photographer who traveled with Bread and Puppet Theater for more than three months during the fall of 2022. John Bell is a puppeteer and former member of the company.

The discussion will run from 5pm—5:45pm in the upper gallery, and the reception will follow from 5:45pm—6:30pm in the lower reception area of the museum.

This event is free and open to the public, but attendance is limited to twenty guests and reservations are required. Please reserve your spot here: https://forms.gle/JqtnSYySgXrL2byg9.

Opening Reception: An Invitation to Awe

Friday, September 13, 2024 | 5:30–7:30 PM
Mahaney Arts Center Lower Lobby, Dance Theater, and Museum galleries
 

After several years in the works, the Museum is excited to present An Invitation to Awe, curated by Associate Professor of the History of Art and Architecture Katy Smith Abbott in collaboration with her students and colleagues. In this exhibition, older paintings and prints are displayed in conversation with contemporary objects, scientific equipment, and interactive work that compels the viewer to think of how awe is experienced through senses other than sight and to expand their own understanding of where awe lives now. Professor Smith Abbott will give a talk about the making of the exhibition at 5:30pm, followed by hors d’oeuvres and drinks (cash bar) at 6pm.

Ancient Beacons Long for Notice: A Conversation with Dario Robleto

Tuesday, October 15, 2024 | 4:30–6:00 PM ET
Mahaney Arts Center, Robison Concert Hall
 

In his prints, sculptures, and films, multi-disciplinary artist Dario Robleto incorporates a deep fascination with science, history, sound, medicine, and human empathy. His 2024 film, Ancient Beacons Long for Notice, is currently installed at the Middlebury College Museum of Art as part of the exhibit, An Invitation to Awe. He will join Guest Curator Katy Smith Abbott in conversation, as they explore Robleto’s conviction that “awe is a courtship with the unknown.” Cosponsored by the Department of History of Art and Architecture.

Museum Lecture + Lunch Series: Artist Rose-Lynn Fisher

Friday, November 1, 2024 | 12:30—2:00 PM
Mahaney Arts Center, Room 221 and Lower Lobby
 

Join us for a talk by Rose-Lynn Fisher, an artist featured in the exhibition An Invitation to Awe, who uses microscope, camera, and mixed media to explore the realms within realms we inhabit, in work that evokes a continuum of interconnections and wonder. Afterward, stay for conversation over a light lunch in the MAC Lower Lobby. Cosponsored by the Department of History of Art and Architecture.

This event is free and open to all, but $5 donations are welcome.

2024 Friends of the Art Museum Purchase Party

Saturday, November 9, 2024 | 5:00–8:00 PM ET
Atwater Dining Hall, 99 Shannon Street
 

Join the Friends of the Art Museum as we consider our next gift to the museum’s collection. Assistant Professor of Psychology Mike Dash will present three works of art for possible purchase, and the members of the Friends will vote to determine which work gets added to the collection. The evening will also feature a buffet dinner and cash bar (each event ticket will include one free drink).

If you’re not currently a member of the Friends, be sure to activate or renew your membership to guarantee you’ll be able to vote.

Guest Curator Talk: Kenneth J. Myers

Thursday, November 14, 2024 | 4:30 PM
Mahaney Arts Center, Room 125
 

The Detroit Institute of Arts has one of the best collections of historic American art in the world, with a particular strength in the period 1660 to 1915. Kenneth Myers, curator of American Art and longtime head of the department of American Art, will discuss the ideas informing the recent reinstallation of the collection which is organized chrono-thematically to highlight ways in which art objects reinforced or challenged culturally dominant assumptions about gender, race, and Americanness.

Opening Reception—Rania Matar: SHE

Thursday, February 13, 2025, 5:30 PM
Mahaney Arts Center, Lower Lobby and Museum
 

The photographs of Lebanese Palestinian American artist Rania Matar tell the stories of young women through portraits taken throughout Lebanon, France, Egypt, and the United States. Photographed through car windows, in abandoned buildings, snow-strewn fields, or floating in the Mediterranean Sea, the women collaborate with Matar, sharing a sense of creative agency. These large-scale color photographs portray individuality intimately tied to the histories and connections of place.

The panel discussion portion of this event has been canceled due to artist travel and winter weather. However, the reception will still go on as scheduled, from 5:30–7:00 PM. See the new exhibition, enjoy hors d’oeuvres in the lobby (cash bar), and learn about the exhibit from Curator of Collections and Director of Engagement Jodi Rodgers.

Artist Talk / Q&A: Rania Matar

Thursday, April 17, 2025, 4:30 PM
Mahaney Arts Center, Room 125
 

Lebanese Palestinian American artist Rania Matar, whose photographs are currently on view in the museum, will discuss the images and origins of her series SHE.

Following her lecture, there will be light refreshments and a chance to mingle with the artist in the lower lobby of the Mahaney Arts Center.

Student Lecture—Christianity, the Spanish Empire, and Post-Colonial Theory in the Inca Territory, by Stephanie Quichimbo ’25, Robert F. Reiff Curatorial Intern

Tuesday, April 22, 2025, 4:30 PM
Mahaney Arts Center, Room 125
 

There is a clear distinction between pre-colonial and post-colonial South American art, particularly in terms of medium. The most obvious difference is the shift from stonework or textiles to paintings, but perhaps the most significant change lies in the subject matter and underlying ideology. Our Lady of Cocharcas, the museum’s recently acquired 18th century painting, serves as a prime example of how forced cultural hybridity influenced artistic production in colonial territories like Peru.

When this painting was created, independence was still over a century away, yet the indigenous population was far from passive, actively rebelling against Spanish rule. Art was a powerful tool of the Spanish Empire, used to foster national pride and maintain colonial control, as seen in the way the Virgin stands over both the people and the landscape. However, an alternate interpretation of the painting suggests that the local community adopted sacred European figures to feign subservience while subtly asserting their own identity.

Friends of the Art Museum Annual Dinner

Saturday, April 26, 2025 | 5:00 PM
Kirk Alumni Center
 

Join the Friends of the Art Museum for our Annual Dinner where we drink, dine, mingle, and enjoy a special presentation. This year, we’re celebrating the past, present, and future of the museum. Associate Curator of Ancient Art Pieter Broucke will detail recent research which resulted in the reattribution of a black-figure white-ground lekythos, the first object the Friends gifted to the museum in 1969 (get a sneak peak on our blog). We’ll also be graced with a student dance performance and welcome Katy Smith Abbott as the museum’s new interim director.

Hors d’oeuvres and drinks begin at 5pm (cash bar, one free drink per event ticket). A buffet-style dinner will be served at 5:30 followed by dessert and the evening’s program.

If you’re not currently a member of the Friends, be sure to activate or renew your membership to guarantee you’ll be able to attend.