A floor-to-ceiling mural, hanging baseballs, a group of milk crates, and television screens are currently filling the galleries on the lower level the Davis Museum as part of the exhibition In Focus: Wellesley College Faculty Artists, illuminating the creative backbone of Wellesley’s art department. It is one of four new exhibits at the museum this fall, alongside Suzanne Ciani: Sound Lounge; Digging Into History: The Wellesley College Hall Archaeology Project; and The Worlds of Ilse Bing.
As this year marks the College’s sesquicentennial, these exhibitions opened as part of ARTS150: Celebrating Wellesley’s Creative Legacy. The museum kicked off the interdisciplinary ARTS150 celebration from September 18 to September 20 with an opening reception followed by events sponsored by the art department, the music department, and the Davis Museum.
On the first day of the celebration, Suzanne Ciani ’68, a barrier-breaking electronic music artist, participated in a panel discussion with Carrie Cushman, a guest curator for the Davis and director of the Bates College Museum of Art, about the exhibits Suzanne Ciani: Sound Lounge and The Worlds of Ilse Bing. Bing, a revolutionary in the world of photojournalism, was one of Ciani’s mentors. These two exhibits, both on view through May 24, 2026, are in dialogue with one another about the power of mentorship in art.
In Digging into History, on view through December 14, former Wellesley faculty Elizabeth Minor ’03 documents the past of College Hall and the legacy it left after it burned down.
The Jewett Art Gallery fall show, a question of imagination and taste: the Jewett Arts Center, then and now, opened the ARTS150 celebrations on September 19 with a display of original blueprints, artifacts, drawings, and photographs that catalog the rich history of the Jewett Arts Center (this exhibit is now closed). Later that day in the Diana Chapman Walsh Alumnae Hall auditorium, Ciani performed Improv on Four Sequences, which consisted of a sparkling synth arrangement.
The closing day of the ARTS150 festivities featured Sounding Legacy, part of the Wellesley College Music Department concert series, which was an ode to Wellesley’s past faculty composers Nadia Boulanger, Marty Brody, Arlene Zallman, Jenny Olivia Johnson, and Hubert Lamb. Reinaldo Moya, associate professor of music, also debuted a new composition, Cantos Helicoide.
Through the array of artistic and musical spectacles making up ARTS150, one message was clear: Wellesley is a sanctuary where artists thrive and joy is cultivated. This notion is further cemented by In Focus, with contributions from faculty artists Phyllis McGibbon, Andrew Mowbray, Katherine Ruffin, David Teng Olsen, Genevieve Cohn, Kathryn Abarbanel, Daniela Rivera, Kathya Landeros, and Claudia Joskowicz. Every five years, the Davis exhibits works by Wellesley’s studio art faculty. Each show has a unique theme, and this year it is that the artists themselves are at the forefront of the displays.
“A key point about each of these installations is that, as opposed to didactics that are written by the curator, we have made a very intentional choice to have the artist’s statement be the main text with the art,” says Nicole Berlin, associate curator of collections at the Davis and lead curator of In Focus. The audience is encouraged to focus on the artists and how they operate as people enmeshed in their art form. “This exhibition gives us a chance to highlight their studio practice and prioritize thinking about each of them as an artist,” Berlin says.
Amanda Gilvin, interim co-director of the Davis, associate director of curatorial affairs, and Sonja Novak Koerner ’51 Senior Curator of Collections, says the title In Focus was chosen to “call attention to the brilliance on campus.” “The title is a way of asking everyone to join us in concentrating and studying work that is exhibited all over the world,” she says. “The celebration is all about looking back and looking forward, but we are right here right now. Contemporary art grounds you in that moment.”
—
If you missed the ARTS150 festivities, you can watch an interview with Suzanne Ciani ’68 about her exhibition and a recording of the Wellesley College Music Department Concert Series: Sounding Legacy.
