Traveling Exhibitions

Art of the Wish

If you had a wish for the world, what would it be? Two artists traveled the country asking this question to elders from diverse backgrounds and locations. Inspired by more than 250 wishes, Art of the Wish is a poignant and memorable reflection of the beauty in generational storytelling.

Popol Vuh: The Sacred Book of the Quiche through Illustration

Around 1,000 A.D. in the present-day country of Guatemala, a highland Mayan people called the Quiche created in pictographic form a creation myth of the Universe in which a pair of Hero Twins must descend into the Underworld to save the next and final generation of humanity. Artist Jaime Arredondo has painstakingly brought it back to life by creating 65 illustrations of the story following it chronologically.

Politics of the Kitchen

Like a lively dinner conversation, Politics of the Kitchen is centered around food, but expands into larger themes of labor, family, nature, and culture. Through the work of these artists, the exhibit considers how the domestic realm reflects the culture and politics of our times.

The State of Water: Our Most Valuable Resource

Only 0.007 percent of the planet’s water is available to fuel and feed its eight billion people. Brad Temkin’s photography puts visitors face-to-face with the systems and techniques that deliver our most valuable natural resource. In doing so, the exhibition encourages us to see water conservation as a process we can all get involved in.

War Toys: Ukraine

Since 2011, internationally recognized photographer Brian McCarty has been collaborating with children who have been affected by conflict on a unique project titled War Toys, which is now active in and near Ukraine. The project invokes principles and practices of expressive art therapy to safely gather and articulate children’s accounts of warfare.

Tuned to the Spirit: Photographs from the Sacred Steel Community

Tuned to the Spirit offers an elegant, sensitive, and deeply respectful portrait of music-making and worship in African American faith communities that are set apart by their embrace of the electric steel guitar as a primary instrument of praise. Folklorist Robert Stone’s first audio recordings of the “sacred steel” guitar musical tradition of African American Pentecostal churches were released in the 1990s. The musically unique and passionately played performances created an immediate international roots music sensation, which continues to endure. Resulting from nearly three decades of close interaction with the worship communities, Stone’s photographs present an intimate picture of praise, prayer, contemplation and celebration in the Spirit. Altogether, the images offer vivid, eloquent testament to the power of music in the expression of joy and communion. This exhibition is augmented by video and audio, and is organized by The Arhoolie Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the documentation, preservation, and celebration of regional roots music and its makers.

The Perfect Shot: Walter Iooss Jr. and the Art of Sports Photography

Over his long career, photographer Walter Iooss Jr. had the opportunity to work with some of the greatest athletes of the past sixty years, capturing on film carefully crafted moments of triumph and disappointment—universal emotions that athletes and non-athletes alike know so well.

Killing the Negative: Poetic Interventions

Intentionally damaged negatives from a Works Progress Administration (WPA) commission led artist Joel Daniel Phillips and poet Quraysh Ali Lansana into a multi-media project that explores complex intersections of representation, truth, and power. Adapted from a forthcoming exhibit at Philbrook Museum of Art, the artist and a group of noted American poets explore crucial concepts that are at the center of our contemporary society.

Rooted Visions

Featuring the work of twenty-five artists working between 1960 and 2016, Rooted Visions also includes work by notable artists such as Leroy Almon, David Butler, Alyne Harris, Charlie Lucas, Mary T. Smith, and Luster Willis. These artists draw on their imaginative powers, allowing them to create a world that summons the divine and activates truths that are instructive.

Backstage Hollywood: The Photographs of Bob Willoughby

Venture backstage into the golden age of Hollywood in this exhibition that explores the photography of Bob Willoughby.