In fall 2016, the Mead unveils its renovated main gallery and opens new exhibitions and installations that offer a fresh perspective on the Amherst College art collection:
Artist Rico Gatson inaugurates Hall Walls, an annual project that gives artists and students the freedom to create an ephemeral artwork on the walls of the museum.
The Rotherwas Room meets contemporary art as the Mead inaugurates its biannual exhibition series, the Rotherwas Project. Artist Amanda Valdez brings a new palette and iconography to the historic room.
Representing over two centuries of American art and artistry, the works on view in these galleries chart the early days in the building of a nation, and a museum.
This exhibition celebrates the idiosyncratic nature of museum collections. Over time, as objects of value and curiosity accumulate in a museum, they enrich our understandings of culture and ourselves.
Princes, scholars, and merchants alike placed their precious objects and art made of rare materials in small rooms known as cabinets of curiosity, predecessors to the modern museum.
The majority of the works on view in this installation were gifts of two brothers, both Amherst alumni: Barry Maurer, Class of 1959, and Evan Maurer, Class of 1966.
This exhibition presents highlights from Whitney's collection, most of which he gave, toward the end of the century and near the end of his life, to his alma mater.