COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 15 Department of Biological Sciences, has brought his genetics class every fall semester since 2023 for an activity he calls the “Genetics Scavenger Hunt at LUAG.” His students are sophomores and juniors who are often stepping into the main gallery for the first time, he says. They start out skeptical of the exercise. “As they start looking closer, something shifts. They begin making their own connections: DNA as a pattern, mutation as change, identity as inheritance. They view genetics through the lens of an artist and art through the lens of a geneticist. By the end, they’re not quite sure where one ends and the other begins—and honestly, neither am I,” he says. Art That Can Teach Anyone The exhibitions that come through the galleries have been chosen with the potential for learning and engagement in mind, says Mark Wonsidler, curator of exhibitions and collections. Many of them come with the bonus of being useful in classes like Tartaglia’s that make less obvious connections. With Curator of Education Stacie Brennan ’03, Wonsidler thinks through the benefits of potential exhibitions. “We’re always having conversations about, ‘What do we see as the potential for this kind of exhibition as opposed to another one? Can we engage a maximum number of audiences? Does it have a connection to a course or the particular scholarship of a professor or a group of professors—or a department on campus? Is there a way to tap into that obvious relevance we might know about?’” he says. The Crochet Coral Reef installation, displayed at LUAG in fall 2019, exemplified art with relevance across multiple academic disciplines. Australian twin sisters Christine and Margaret Wertheim, founders of the Institute for Figuring, merged geometry and handcraft to explore environmental conservation themes, creating a resource that engaged several Lehigh departments. Visitors were invited to crochet hyperbolic coral reef structures using found and recycled materials. In another example, Wonsidler collaborated with Annabella Pitkin, an associate professor who focuses on Buddhism in the Department of Religion, Culture, and Society, to bring the traveling exhibition Gateway to Himalayan Art from the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City to LUAG in 2023 for the first stop in its ongoing national tour. Pitkin says having the exhibit on campus gave students a chance to make connections between art and religion, As Lehigh University Art Galleries (LUAG) marks its centennial anniversary, the museum celebrates a unique offering for the university—giving faculty members and students free and accessible ways to engage with art. And they have taken advantage of that opportunity in ways even LUAG’s director couldn’t have dreamed up. “I’m really proud to say that we have grown in working with every college across the whole university,” says William Crow. As the director of LUAG and the leader of the museum studies minor, Crow frequently relies on the galleries in his own classes. His Museum Collections and Exhibitions students, for example, spent the fall semester deeply engaging with the current exhibition, Here and Now: 100 Years of LUAG, 100 Local Artists. The students decided which pieces from the exhibition they would recommend the museum add to its permanent collection. But Crow recalled the creative ways faculty outside the art, architecture, and design department have incorporated the galleries in their curriculum, as well. He described engineering faculty who brought students to study structural stresses on the outdoor sculptures, business faculty who brought students to learn how the skills they need to engage with art can also help them become more influential leaders, and education faculty exploring teaching with art. Lawrence Tartaglia, teaching associate professor and the associate chair in the The Unexpected Classroom TRICIA MILLER KLAPHEKE Lehigh University Art Galleries’ Centennial reveals art’s cross-curricular power ILLUSTRATION BY KATHLEEN FU
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