If you are a regular visitor to the Hamon Arts Library, you will have noticed that the Hawn Gallery has not looked much like a gallery since May. The space has been used as a temporary site for storage and for processing special collections for the last six months. This is about to change as a new exhibition, Decoding: Hidden Traces in Contemporary Drawing, opens on Thursday, November 21.
The exhibition is entirely led by students of Dr. Anna Lovatt’s Art Gallery Practicum course in the Art History department of the Meadows School of the Arts. As hands-on training in real world gallery management, students used the University Art Collection at SMU to curate the exhibition based on 25 drawings chosen from the collection. In addition to selecting the art works and theme, students also had responsibilities coordinating installation, writing descriptive texts, and promoting the exhibition and related public programs.
Decoding: Hidden Traces in Contemporary Drawing showcases drawings and works on paper, featuring a selection of rarely shown works from the University Art Collection. The exhibition moves beyond traditional definitions of drawing and explores works that ask viewers to look closely, search, and reorient themselves in relation to the works on display.
The exhibition runs from November 21, 2024 to February 24, 2025.