Past Exhibits

Calling to Question celebrates the people at the U of M College of Liberal Arts. The exhibit explores the challenges they have faced. Through their struggles we see how liberal education promotes questioning as a way to strive for the betterment of the human condition. March 4 through June 12, 2019 at Elmer L. Andersen Library.

A diverse group of artists have created sets of ceramic bookends. It is part of the Claytopia series of exhibits. March 25 through April 5, 2019 at Wilson Library, lobby and at the Architecture & Landscape Architecture Library, located in 210 Rapson Hall.

This exhibit in the Claytopia series features ceramic art. Artists Neil Forrest and John Roloff depict modernist architectural models embroiled in an archaeological/catastrophic narrative. March 26 through May 6, 2019 at the Architecture & Landscape Architecture Library, 210 Rapson Hall.

This exhibit recognizes the significant work and impact of Professor Emeritus Wayne Potratz. Potratz started the Iron Pour events at the University of Minnesota in 1969. April 22 through May 17, 2019 at Wilson Library, fourth floor.

The Flora & Fauna Illustrata collection of art on display includes fruit and nut trees, Big Woods species, invasives, and more. May 9 through October 27, 2019 at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Skyway Gallery and Andersen Horticultural Library.

The American Society of Botanical Artists and The New York Botanical Garden present their third triennial exhibition of outstanding contemporary botanical art. The 43 artworks in Out of the Woods capture strikingly detailed images of trees, all of which are cultivated in public gardens and arboreta. May 9 through August 13, 2019 at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Reedy Gallery.

This exhibit celebrates mail art — a rare, fun, and enticing form of art and print culture. Mail art became a traceable genre in the early 1960s. Artist-selected networks formed “add and pass” exchanges that resulted in visually provocative correspondence that was stamped and delivered via the United States postal system, fax machines, or computers. July 22 through September 30, 2019 at Elmer L. Andersen Library, Wallin Center, Bell Gallery (ground floor).

Our relationship with food is complex. Food sustains us as living entities, but it also plays a key role in how we live our lives. This exhibition, and its online companion exhibit, explore the history of our relationship with food in the premodern era using sources as varied as travel narratives, art, fairy tales, sagas, and medicinal recipes. October 14, 2019 through March 13, 2020 at Elmer L. Andersen Library, Wallin Center, Bell Gallery (ground floor).

The stories of women as workers are as complex, varied, and engaging as the women themselves. Visit the contentious battleground of women in the workforce and discover the laborers, pioneers, troublemakers, and reformers documented across the Archives and Special Collections. November 11, 2019 through March 6, 2020 at Elmer L. Andersen Library, 1st Floor Main Gallery.

October 8, 2018 through January 18, 2019 at Elmer L. Andersen Library Atrium Gallery. “It’s such a big dream, I can’t see it all,” is what Edward S. Curtis said of his master work, The North American Indian, published between 1907 and 1930. Co-curated by Curtis expert Christopher Cardozo, this exhibit highlights not only this work, but also examines Curtis’ life and the impact he had on photography.

Fifty years ago, John Luhman was drafted into the U.S. Army. He served a tour in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969. Entymology professor Alexander Hodson asked him to collect insects while he was there and send them back to the University of Minnesota’s Insect Collection. Luhman caught more than 600 insects. For the 50th anniversary, we are displaying some of these insects along with memorabilia from his time in Vietnam.

View the work of nine ceramic artists. Their work takes advantage of the unpredictable nature of working in clay. January 24 to April 5, 2019 at Wilson Library, fourth floor.

This exhibit examines the intersection of culture, medicinal plants, and current research. It invites viewers to consider the value of ten plants that have taken root in Minnesota. The exhibit opens January 8 at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum's Andersen Horticultural Library.

"Fortuitous Recovery" is a multimedia visual arts exhibition by Heidi Jeub inspired by a summer spent with the Architecture & Landscape Architecture Library collection. The work on exhibit reflects the relationship between art-making, being an architect, and architecture research.

September 24, 2018 through January 31, 2019 at Wallin Gallery at Elmer L. Andersen Library. Humans throughout recorded time have come together to celebrate, to express common cause, and to practice public rituals. From Venice to Beijing, from Cairo to Greenland to the South Pacific, this James Ford Bell Library exhibition will explore this fascinating aspect of the human experience that is common to us all.

A Campus Divided: Progressives, Anti-Communists, Racism, and Antisemitism at the University of Minnesota, 1930-1942 examines the campus climate during a time of division over issues including racial and economic equality, opposition to war, and students rights. Exhibit panels on display at Wilson Library, fourth floor, feature archival images and descriptions. This is the reprisal of the exhibit originally displayed at Elmer L. Andersen Library in fall 2017.