The Maier Museum of Art
at Randolph College

Upcoming Exhibitions

The Legacy of Louise Jordan Smith: Artist, Educator, Visionary
On view March 28 – July 31, 2026

Louise Jordan Smith, "Self Portrait"Louise Jordan Smith served first professor of art at what was then Randolph-Macon Woman’s, now Randolph College. She founded the College’s art department and its renowned collection of American art. Primary among her visionary goals was the importance of firsthand study of art and the belief that art should play a central role within the life of the College. Toward that end, she devoted thirty-five years to a program that established an annual exhibition of contemporary art in 1911, developed an art curriculum that introduced a course in American painting and sculpture in 1915, and formed a permanent art collection of the highest quality.

The exhibition The Legacy of Louise Jordan Smith: Artist, Educator, Visionary features artwork purchased by the fund she endowed to continue building the permanent art collection at the College. It will also include ephemera, objects she used in her classroom, and some of her own paintings.

 

 

Image Credit: Louise Jordan Smith, Self Portrait, 1897, Pastel on canvas, Bequest of the artist, 1929

Pivotal Introspection
Senior Studio Art Major Capstone Exhibition
On view April 17 – May 10, 2026

Senior Studio Art Major Capstone Exhibition: Pivotal Introspection. April 17 through May 10, 2026. Gracie Woodford, Andrew Hill, Molly Stephenson, Nastassja Z. Hamlett. A work of art for each of the four student artists is displayed. Three are brightly colored and one is a black and white page from a comic book.

This exhibition is the capstone project for this year’s Randolph College graduating senior studio art majors: Nastassja Z. Hamlett, Andrew Hill, Molly Stephenson, and Gracie Woodford.

Crossing the Line: The Passport Re-Imagined
On view June 29 – October 4, 2026

a book created from passport covers in colors from black to orange to blue.The Maier Museum is pleased to be one of four venues in the U.S. invited to host Crossing the Line: The Passport Re-Imagined curated by Catherine Alice Michaelis and Cynthia Sears of Bainbridge Island Museum of Art in Washington state.

The exhibition is built around ideas and ideals of identity, belonging, and freedom of movement. Twelve artists were commissioned by the Cynthia Sears Artists’ Books Collection to take inspiration from the passport and other travel documents to create an artist book. In addition, another sixteen artists’ books were curated from the collection to bring additional perspectives. As a whole, these 28 artists’ books take us around the world and into the future, documenting the promises and limitations of the passport, depending much on who has one and what nationality or group has conferred belonging.

Crossing the Line: The Passport Re-Imagined originated at BIMA, then travelled to the San Francisco Center for the Book. The Minnesota Center for Book Arts hosts the exhibition before its final destination at the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College where it opens June 29, 2026 and remains on view through October 4, 2026.

Hosting the exhibition was made possible through the generosity of Dana Davidson Redmond ’60 and Randall Johnson Watts ’77.