Carrier Library Art Galleries open with two student exhibitions
Arts and Culture
SUMMARY: The Updike Gallery on the second floor of the library is featuring the two-dimensional exhibit “A Third Space: Making Place,” while the library’s Ground Floor Gallery features “Exquisite Corpse,” a surrealist collection of ceramics, fibers, metals, photography, printmaking and sculpture.
Carrier Library held a reception Oct. 22 for the opening of two new art galleries featuring works by students in the School of Art, Design and Art History.
Grounded in shared commitments to teaching, learning, research and creative exploration, the Carrier Library Art Galleries serve as academic workspaces where students gain hands-on experience in exhibition development, curatorial practice, interdisciplinary collaboration and professional presentation.
“For our students, exhibiting their work is an important part of their learning,” said SADAH Director MiKyoung Lee. “Through these exhibitions, JMU’s broader community of students, faculty and staff can encounter their work and engage with their creative journeys.”
The Updike Gallery on the second floor of the library is featuring the two-dimensional exhibit “A Third Space: Making Place.” The exhibit features the work of 10 Architectural Design students who participated in the American Institute of Architects Virginia Prize Challenge in February 2026. The students were asked to imagine a welcoming, flexible community hub — a “third space” somewhere between home and work — in the nearby town of Bridgewater, Virginia. They spent a weekend researching, developing and designing their responses, which are displayed in a series of glass frames along the wall of the gallery.
The library’s Ground Floor Gallery features “Exquisite Corpse,” a collection of ceramics, fibers, metals, photography, printmaking and sculpture from more than 75 Studio Art students. Inspired by the surrealist collaborative game of the same name, the exhibition explores what happens when ideas, images, materials and individual contributions intersect, said Brett Taylor, assistant professor of art and Carrier Library Art Galleries liaison. “The resulting work demonstrates how experimentation and exchange can transform separate practices into unexpected and collective forms,” he said.
Multidisciplinary collaboration is a core value of the College of Visual and Performing Arts. “It’s so exciting to see that all coming [to life] and building all around us,” Associate Dean Dr. Karin Tollefson-Hall said.
Dr. Bethany Nowviskie, dean of libraries, said the arts and JMU Libraries are “a really good match.”
“We look forward to more thought-provoking, inspiring, and beautiful art and design throughout Carrier Library,” she said.
