Current Exhibitions

Ann Holsberry: Navigating Sea and Stars
On view January 19 – June 1, 2025

Ann Holsberry’s work celebrates the inherent beauty of the natural order of things in scales ranging from cosmic to microscopic representing both the vast and infinitesimal as a unified whole. Her long-term practice is a meditation on environmental changes that require humans and animals to adapt to new ways of navigating the world.

Holsberry depicts intricate networks found in nature using mixed media, especially the photographic process of cyanotype. She often incorporates materials sourced from surrounding ecosystems and also utilizes natural phenomena such as sunlight to expose prints on paper or fabric or allows time or weather to influence surfaces before embellishing with pigments, inks, wax, and embroidery.

Holsberry is the Maier Museum of Art’s 2025 Outten Visiting Artist Lecturer. In a weeklong residency, she will participate in the installation of her exhibition which will include a site-specific wall installed in collaboration with Randolph College students. Her residency will culminate in a lecture at 2 p.m. on Sunday, January 19, 2025. Reception. FREE and open to the public.

Image: Ann Holsberry. Pink Moon, 2021, cyanotype, ink, and archival Printon paper on panel.

Legacy: Celebrating African American Creativity in Central Virginia through Art
On view January 25 – February 28, 2025

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of The Legacy Museum of African American History, the Daura Museum of Art at the University of Lynchburg and the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College partner to host a joint art exhibition featuring work by or about African Americans, to run simultaneously at both museums. Legacy: Celebrating African American Creativity in Central Virginia through Art is intended to highlight visual art in all its diversity, while also raising funds as part of The Legacy Museum’s anniversary year goal.

The exhibition opening reception on January 25th from 2-5 pm will celebrate the Legacy Museum’s twenty-five years of spotlighting local African-American history through engaging programming and educational initiatives. It is also the first time the three museums have collaborated.

Legacy is generously sponsored by Alice Hilseweck Ball ’61, Randolph College (formerly Randolph-Macon Woman’s College).

Foyer Focus: Art and Protest

During the academic year, the Museum’s foyer gallery features works of art from the Maier’s collection that demonstrate the role of art in teaching across Randolph College’s curriculum. The curator of education works with faculty to develop exhibitions related to course content.

Art and Protest, taught in fall fall 2024 by Professor Lesley Shipley, considers how and why visual works of art have played a vital role in movements for social change. While investigating historical and contemporary examples, students are asked to consider, “What does protest art look like?” and “What role should museums have in social justice campaigns?”

The works in the current exhibition highlight a wide range of events in US American history that inspired artists to respond. Ben Shahn (1898 – 1969), a leader in the social realist movement, is represented with three works: For all these rights we’ve just begun to fight is a 1946 lithograph made during the midterm congressional elections in support of pro-labor candidates; Immortal Words is a 1958 serigraph inspired by the infamous 1921 murder trial of Sacco and Vanzetti; and McCarthy PEACE is a campaign poster Shahn made for Senator Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 presidential election campaign. Two prints created in response to the American War in Vietnam are featured: May Stevens’ (1924-2019), Big Daddy Paper Doll, a 1970 serigraph and Robert Andrew Parker’s (1927-2023) lithograph, Sunday Dinner for a Soldier, 1971. Finally, Binh Danh’s (b. 1977), Memory of Tuol Sleng Prison, Child 10, 2010, a chlorophyll print on leaf, recalls the Cambodian genocide.

In addition to having focused conversations about these works of art, students contributed interpretive content in the form of “Community Voice Labels” which aim to include the voices, perspectives, and lived experiences of the people a museum serves.

Image: Ben Shahn, For all these rights we’ve just begun to fight, 1946, photo-offset lithograph on paper.

Selections from the Permanent Collection
Ongoing 

The Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College houses an outstanding collection of American art, chiefly paintings, works on paper, and photographs dating from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Explore this chronological exhibition of artwork from the permanent collection, including works by artists such as Milton Avery, Thomas Hart Benton, Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, Edward Hopper, Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O’Keeffe, and more. Explore works on view >>

Image: Edward Hopper, Mrs. Scott’s House, 1932, oil on canvas. Collection of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College.

Upcoming Exhibitions >>

Past Exhibitions >>