Hamilton College student-curated exhibition “Constellations” opening Feb. 20 at Munson

Beginning Friday, Feb. 20, Munson Museum of Art will host a dynamic new exhibition, “Constellations: Works on Paper from Three Collections,” bringing together photography, prints, and drawings from Munson, the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum at Hamilton College, and the private collection of Michael and Lisa Shapiro. The exhibition, curated by a team of 16 Hamilton College students, will be on view until April 12 in the Museum of Art’s Dr. William L. Boyle, Jr. Gallery.

As a goal of the Hamilton College museum studies course, “From Collecting to Curating,” taught by professor and Munson Trustee Robert Knight along with High Museum (Atlanta) former director and Hamilton alumnus Michael Shapiro, students of different majors examined what it really takes to organize an exhibition—from selecting works and shaping themes to writing interpretive text and designing the gallery experience.

Works by internationally famous artists, including Imogen Cunnigham, Robert Mapplethorpe, Gerhard Richter, and Ed Ruscha, are brought together around themes such as Car Culture, the Language of Abstraction, and Portraiture and Power. Visitors are invited to make new connections, notice patterns, and consider shifts in meaning when works are seen together—much like stars forming constellations. The result is a powerful mix of amazing artworks by world-renowned artists that prompt close looking and lively dialogue.

This project is supported by the Daniel W. Dietrich ’64 Fund for Innovation in the Arts, Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y.

Funding for Munson’s 2025–26 exhibition series is provided by Andrew Britton and David Grey, Christian and Cheryl Heilmann, Elizabeth R. Lemieux, Ph.D., and the Family of F. X. Matt II.

For more information, visit munson.art.

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