CLINTON, NY.- Dialogues Across Disciplines: Building a Teaching Collection at the Wellin Museum celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College. Featuring a selection of artworks acquired through gifts and purchases over the last decade, the exhibition highlights the museum’s ongoing commitment to building a globally representative collection that is reflective of the academic and cultural richness of Hamilton College.

The exhibition will be on view September 17, 2022, through May 20, 2023, and is curated by Tracy L. Adler, Johnson-Pote Director, and Alexander Jarman, Assistant Curator of Exhibitions and Academic Outreach.

Says Adler, who is the Museum’s founding director, “At the core of our mission are exploration and experimentation. As a teaching museum, the Wellin has worked throughout the last decade to activate its holdings to engage the curiosity of students, faculty, staff, and the community, and advance interdisciplinary learning by introducing new ideas and perspectives to classroom conversations. We look forward to building upon our efforts well into the future.”

The more than 140 works included in the exhibition mirror Hamilton’s liberal arts mission by highlighting a plurality of voices and viewpoints, using art as a means of addressing subjects relevant to a range of disciplines from the humanities to the sciences.

To foreground this, members of the Hamilton community have lent their personal and expert perspectives by writing texts to accompany the artworks on display. Faculty, staff, and students from across campus have collaborated with the Wellin to share their insights about the artworks on view.

Assistant Curator Alexander Jarman explains, “This collaboration deepens our understanding of individual works, and underscores how the active participation of faculty, students, staff, and administrators enriches the collection and brings the artworks to life.”

Two works commissioned for the Wellin’s collection that will debut in the show as part of the Wellin’s Creative Commission series include original works by artists Akea Brionne and Donté K. Hayes. In addition, Dialogues Across Disciplines will feature educational prompts among the artworks to spark responses to the themes in the exhibition.

Works in the exhibition range in date from 63 BCE through 2022, from Ancient Roman glass, 19th century photography, and Song Dynasty ceramics to global contemporary art in every medium.

Examples include Margarita Cabrera’s print-based Iron Will (2013); Jeffrey Gibson’s original video I Was Here (2018); Karen Hampton’s textile work Gerrit Smith, from the series "Abolitionists" (2015); Jacob Lawrence’s lithograph Tools (1977); Nate Lewis’s mixed media Orchestra in the Valley (2021); Roberto Lugo’s ceramic vessel First (2020); Jamea Richmond-Edwards’ collage-based painting Devotional for the Divine Mind (2021); Cara Romero’s photographs Julia (2018) and Naomi (2018); Elias Sime’s tableau Tightrope: Familiar Yet Complex 2 (2016); Yinka Shonibare MBE’s woodcuts with collage Cowboy Angel I - IV (2017); and Laurie Simmons’ large-scale, black and white photograph Walking Microphone with Skirt (1989).

Featuring over 7,000 works of art and artifacts—2,000 of which have been acquired since the Wellin opened in 2012—the Museum’s collection represents a broad range of cultures, historic periods, artistic practices, and movements. The Wellin’s collection includes works of art that have been on campus almost since the College’s founding 200 years ago as well as new works of art by emerging and established artists working around the world today