WE’VE ONLY JUST BEGUN: CELEBRATING A CENTURY OF COLLECTING ART AT WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY

Curated by Indra K. Lācis, PhD, Director of Exhibitions, with research assistance by Katie Mumby, B.F.A., Frostic School of Art, ’22.

Join us for our fall exhibition!
Monday, August 29th – Saturday, November 19th
**closed during fall break, October 19 – 20**

Created to enrich learning and work environments throughout Western Michigan University, the Art Collection this year celebrates its 100th anniversary. Featuring nearly 100 works by artists from around the globe, this commemorative exhibition brings together a range of media from diverse geographic areas, time periods, and styles. Drawn from nearly 3,500 objects either stored at the Richmond Center or installed in more than 50 buildings across WMU’s main and satellite campuses, We’ve Only Just Begun: Celebrating a Century of Collecting Art at Western Michigan University highlights major artistic movements while also tracing the University’s collecting patterns and the development of the niche position of the University museum and gallery within the art world ecosystem.

The first of two major exhibitions, We’ve Only Just Begun: Celebrating a Century of Collecting at Western Michigan University will be on view in the Albertine Monroe-Brown gallery at the Richmond Center from August 29 – November 19, 2022. Encyclopedic in scope, We’ve Only Just Begun includes examples of American Impressionism and European Romanticism, Japanese and Chinese ceramics, and art of Asian, African and indigenous American origin, as well as 20th-century Modernism, Post-war Expressionism, Pop art, and Postmodern painting and printmaking. Beginning in the late fall of 2022, a pendant exhibition spread through the Richmond Center’s halls and public spaces will feature works by former Frostic School of Art faculty and staff as well as Frostic School of Art alumni. Self-guided walking tours of major sculptural landmarks and works of art beloved across campus will be announced during the fall of 2022. The second major exhibition celebrating the UAC’s 100th anniversary, All Together Now: Contemporary Prints from the University Art Collection, will open on January 17, 2023, and remain on view in the Albertine Monroe-Brown gallery through February 25, 2023.