Gathering: a queer ecologies symposium is a one-night event on Tues, April 29th from 6-8:30pm, where we will discuss the emerging concept of "queer ecology" and how it influences a variety of scholarship including the field of science, social sciences and the arts and humanities. 

Art Exhibition (Office Gallery of Chalmers Hall)

Panel Discussion (6-7:15pm in The Forum of Marvin Hall)

Reception will follow directly after Panel (3rd Floor Chalmers)

**Live music from singer-song writer duo, Babylon King 

**Food provided by the incredible Locavore based out of KC 

Open to the public! 

This event is supported by KU Visual Art Department and The Commons

Please join us on Sunday, May 11th from 2-4pm in Chalmers Hall to view work from our current Visual Art students as they showcase their talents.

Refreshments will be provided.

Each year the Department of Visual Art awards scholarships to continuing students majoring in Visual Art. This is an important opportunity for students to exhibit their work and possibly earn a scholarship. Participating students are required to submit a body of work for the jurying process. The exhibition is open to the public and students are encouraged to invite friends and family to the exhibition. Visitors are invited to tour all the studios to see the exceptional quality and variety of creative work being made at KU.

Elise Kirk, The Bather, 2014; printed 2024. Inkjet print, 40 × 50 inches (101.6 × 127 cm). The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Artist Conversation on Thurs. April 17th at 6pm, Nelson Atkins Museum in the Atkins Auditorium. $10 to public and $8 to Museum members.

Exhibition runs until July 20th, free admission.

Featuring new acquisitions on view for the first time in our galleries, Strange and Familiar Places presents 26 works by 10 contemporary photographers who tell compelling stories about people, communities, and the land they inhabit. Their intimate photographs focus on rural subjects in the Midwest, South, and Western United States, often challenging our preconceptions of these regions.   

Great storytelling conveys a sense of place: it is as important as establishing characters, symbolism, and plot. These artists weave together influences from music, fiction, history, folklore, and photography itself to create poetic, lyrical photographs. They use the medium in a variety of ways: some rely on a familiar, documentary style, while others stage or compose their images to invite new, and at times, strange ways of seeing. In all instances, these artists deepen and enrich our understanding of place by emphasizing the humanity of their subjects.   

Artists in Strange and Familiar Places include Antone Dolezal, Terry Evans, Laura McPhee, Rahim Fortune, Holly Lynton, Elise Kirk, Kristine Potter, RaMell Ross, Bryan Schutmaat, and Lara Shipley.   

ArtiFISHial Intelligence explores the seamless integration of technology into our environment, positioning it as a natural extension of daily life. The exhibition features three large sculptures that invite viewers to step back and reflect on their relationship with technology through the lens of a fish, encouraging an exploration of the blurred line between the digital world and the natural one. 

Exhibition runs from April 10th to April 12th

Reception on April 11th from 5-8pm with Artist Talk at 6pm

Off-Site Art Space at 924 Delaware St. Lawrence, KS

See more of Haley's work on Instagram @hayhooper.art

Come see a couple things Visual Art Senior, Katie Schudy, has been working on at Off-site Art Space.

Exhibition runs April 17-19th at Off-Site Art Space, 924 Delaware St.

Artist talk on April 18th at 6pm

Don’t miss it or else!

Junkmail, Security envelope, thread, 3' x 5', 2024.

Congratulations to MFA Candidate, Cassandra Liuzzo, on winning first prize in the the Michigan Technological University exhibition, Art in Silico: Computational Art Show.

Art in Silico is a computational art exhibition and event series that examines the expressive world of creative computation and the confluence of technology and art, connecting circuit board to canvas.

In “Junkmail,” a mixed-media wall installation, security envelopes are stitched with machine embroidered phrases pulled straight from the e-mail Junk folder. At face value, these phrases (e.g. “We have been trying to reach you. Your great steaks is waiting!”) are absurd and humorous, but their purpose is sinister: to steal data, money, and identity. In this work, spam becomes “found poetry,” and envelopes, displayed on the wall in a haphazard overlapping array, fill the viewer’s field of vision creating a sense of overwhelm much like an overflowing inbox.

In the age of “going paperless” to keep physical mail out of the landfill, security envelopes are rapidly becoming a piece of paper ephemera going the way of ticker tape and telegrams. When the digital world is stored on servers that run on fossil fuels, we must ask the question: how much energy is used to store and transport e-Junk?

See more of Cassandra's work here: https://www.cassandraliuzzo.com/

or on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatsuss/?hl=en

Our 6 KU Art Ed Club students rocked-it at the National Art Education Association conference in Louisville, KY, this week-end presenting:  University Art Ed Club Programming Brings Vibrancy, Diversity and Community to the Art Education Program. The experience gave them countless new national connections in the field of art education as they became acquainted with leaders in the field, and they are ready to take on leadership both state-wide and nationally.  We can be so proud of them. They are ready to present to anyone that will listen about the importance of student organizations to student professional growth and program advocacy.

Congratulations to Visual Art Education Assistant Professor Dr. Jhih-yin Diane Lee on being selected for the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Incubator Program! Dr. Lee will integrate this initiative into her VAE430: Curriculum and Teaching Processes in Art Education course in fall 2025.  Dr. Lee is one of seven faculty members from across the KU campus selected for this grant. She will collaborate with KU’s Center for Teaching Excellence and Office of International Affairs to create virtual exchange experiences that connect her students with faculty and peers overseas in fall 2025.  This is an exciting opportunity to foster global collaboration and enrich the learning experience for our VAE students.

COIL creates virtual exchange experiences that connect students with faculty and peers overseas. This “pop-up” faculty program is a collaboration between the Center for Teaching Excellence and KU’s Office of International Affairs, linked to a broader university initiative to transform KU into a comprehensive international university where “international” is more thoroughly and seamlessly woven into every aspect of institutional life. To this end, the program aims to help faculty move toward incorporating elements of COIL into one or more of their courses as a step toward this internationalization. Global engagement, even when it happens from the comfort of home, is broadly understood to be a high-impact teaching practice that helps students better learn how to engage with others—skills they will need in the workforce, no matter what they study. COIL is a great strategy for providing students with an affordable but still meaningful opportunity for global engagement. 

What: Join CAAS in painting 25 ceramic bowls that will be fired with the help of Sunfire Ceramics. These bowls will be sold at an auction, and all of the proceeds will be donated to the Lawrence Community Shelter (LCS), a local nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people experiencing homelessness, poverty, addiction, and mental health. The deputy director of LCS will speak briefly about food insecurity and those experiencing homelessness, and then volunteers will paint with snacks and music. Volunteers will receive service hours and will also have an opportunity to bid for their bowl if they wish to do so.

Where:

Wescoe 4062

When:

Wednesday, April 16th from 5-8pm

Sign up here! 

https://volunteer.ku.edu/need/detail/?need_id=1073474

"In a public-driven effort to help Haskell Indian Nations University since its federal layoffs, an art auction next month will raise funds to support cultural programs at the university.

The Haskell Cultural Preservation Art Auction is a first-time event that will be at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, May 3, in the regency ballroom of the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, 200 McDonald Drive. There is no charge to enter the auction, and the event will include both a silent and a live auction. All of the proceeds from the event will be given to the university.

There are many local and national artists that have been donating to the event, and a call to artists is underway for additional donations, according to a press release from Tamara Werth. All art forms are welcome to include custom commissions, and there is no age of art, artist, and no value of art restriction for participation.

Artists who are interested in submitting artwork for the auction can contact Werth by calling 785-393-4966."

Plug Gallery is pleased to present Within the Horizon, a two-person exhibition featuring the work of Lily Erb and SK Reed. The artists examine the living species that once flourished in this prairie region, considering their significance and resilience.

Reed showcases natural pigment paintings of fluid bodies engaging with native sunflowers as meditations on methods of resilience. Erb creates soft sculptures that magnify essential prairie soil microbes, emphasizing their vital role in sustaining ecosystems—an often-overlooked foundation of life.

As Queer artists, they find joy and inspiration in these prairie ecosystems, a space where diversity of species flourishes. Their work reflects on how these species have endured through times of distress, offering insight into survival, adaptation, and coexistence.

The walls of the gallery have been painted with local clay slip, bringing the earth’s soil into the space. The clay creates a horizon from which the work is situated. The horizon becomes a place of longing and dreaming, where the artists invite the viewers to cast their own fears and hopes.

Inspiring the exhibition is Maya Angelou’s poem, On the Pulse of Morning.

Each new hour holds new chances

For a new beginning.

Do not be wedded forever

To fear, yoked eternally

To brutishness.                                                                                    The horizon leans forward,

Offering you space to place new steps of change.

Tired

by Langston Hughes

I am so tired of waiting,

Aren't you,

For the world to become good

And beautiful and kind?

Let us take a knife

And cut the world in two-

And see what worms are eating

At the rind.

We're Hiring! The Visual Art Department is looking for a stellar new Common Shop Specialist.

This full-time staff position will oversee all operations of the Common Shop, a well-resourced wood shop, metal fabrication area, materials store, workspace and hub for arts creation using traditional methods. This facility is housed and partnered with the Visual Arts Studio Technologies Lab (VAST), a hub for arts innovation using digital fabrication processes and technology within the Department of Visual Art at the University of Kansas. Together, these resources support interdisciplinary research throughout the Department of Visual Art providing monitored and independent equipment access, training opportunities, and technical consultation to students, staff, and faculty.

Learn more and apply here! http://www.employment.ku.edu/staff/30019BR

Learn more and apply here!

Calling All Student Artists & Scientists!

Deadline: May 1, 2025

The Midwestern Journal of Undergraduate Sciences is looking for an eye-catching cover for our next issue, and we want to put YOUR creativity on display! We’re holding a cover art competition open to students at any level who can create a compelling visual representation of this issue’s theme: Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T Cell Immunotherapy. Whether you're a budding scientist with a passion for design or an artist fascinated by the power of biotechnology, we want to see your interpretation of this groundbreaking cancer therapy!   Winning Submission: The selected artwork will be featured on the cover of the latest MJUS edition, and the winner will be credited for their art and also highlighted with a photo and bio in the journal.

Eligibility: Open to all students, regardless of field or institution 

How to Submit: Email your high-resolution artwork (with a title and brief description of your inspiration) to jtreml@ku.edu This is a fantastic opportunity to merge art and science while contributing to an undergraduate research publication. 

Foundation for Contemporary Arts
Emergency Grants

These monthly grants range from $500–$3,000, with the average amount being $1,700. Visual and performing artists whose work is of a contemporary, experimental nature and who have a US Tax ID number can apply.
Deadline: Rolling | foundationforcontemporaryarts.org