Eras: People Watching 200 BCE to 2022 CE
Oct. 9, 2025 - March 21, 2026
Pannell Gallery on the Upper Quad – Open Thurs., Fri. & Sat.: 12-5 pm (during semester)
The way people have been portrayed across time leaves a trail of clues about the eras in which they lived and the artists who have shaped our view of history. From medieval martyred saints to women rebelling against restrictive dress codes, Eras: People Watching 400 BCE to 2022 CE spans more than 2,000 years and mixes significant artists with household names, such as Rembrandt van Rijn, William Blake, Mary Cassatt, and Carrie Mae Weems. In this exhibition, you can watch people, especially women, being constrained, celebrated, and liberated across eras.
The figures who appear in these 66 artworks from the College’s art collection tell of the social, political, and cultural context of their times. The exhibition is also a celebration of the teaching potential of this visual encyclopedia. Sweet Briar is just one of the 10% of post-secondary institutions offering object-based learning with access to a collection. Twenty-nine of the artworks in the exhibition are featured in the upcoming catalog, Seeing Art: The Art Collection at Sweet Briar College, which will be published on the occasion of the College’s 125th anniversary, written by former Sweet Briar Galleries & Museum Director Dr. Annie Labbatt.
American Dream: Sidra Kaluszka
Sept. 17 - Dec. 7, 2025
Vaulted Gallery - Open 24/7 at entrance to Mary Helen Cochran Library
In Sidra Kaluszka’s American Dreams cyanotype series, family history and generational trauma intertwine in so many ways. Kaluszka’s great-grandparents immigrated to Canada sometime between the 1920s and 1930s as farmers from Japan. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese & Japanese Canadians living in Canada found themselves subjected to internment camps similar to their American counterparts. Kaluszka has spent time going through the internet archives looking for images leading up to the “evacuation” and internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans during this period. She wanted to retell the story, show their beauty, strength, and pain, and work through the feelings of how this directly impacted her and her family.
The Dreams of Home cyanotype series is an exploration of home in which Kaluszka meshes the reality of how her home looked when she left with how she felt about it growing up. Her childhood home was sold very suddenly several years ago, and it filled her with a sense of loss. The home and property had fallen into disrepair; however, having lived most of her life, she viewed it as part of her core identity. Both bodies of work represent history and loss, but also reflect on strength, healing, beauty, and an undeniable tie to nature.
Sidra Kaluszka is a multifaceted artist who specializes in both ceramics and watercolors. She is heavily influenced by her appreciation for nature & natural light. Kaluszka graduated with a double concentration MFA from Radford University, Virginia, where internationally renowned watercolorist Z.L. Feng mentored her, earning the Best Creative Thesis Award. She received her BFA from Virginia Tech, where she studied with nationally known ceramicist David Crane. Her foundational art practice is in watercolor and ceramics; however, she has found a new voice through the cyanotypes.
Color Process: Student Experiments in Abstraction
May. 27 - Dec. 21, 2025
Benedict Gallery – Open 24/7 in foyer of Benedict Academic Building
The Painting: Color and Composition course addresses the challenges of starting and making abstract artwork. Abstract art is a visual language that can express meaning and emotion with just arrangements of shape, color, and line. Sometimes abstract artwork has an underlying theme or subject matter, sometimes the material or color is the subject matter itself, and sometimes the artwork is driven by process or expression. (or a combination of all) How can we explore the impacts of color and the effects of compositions with only abstract mark-making? How can we initiate an unfamiliar painting process?
Students worked collaboratively on three compositional painting exercises, drawing inspiration from the color and form of campus flowers while incorporating techniques from Helen Frankenthaler, Leslie Baum, and Josef Albers. When we see the same composition with different color palettes, we can start to unpack how color affects our mood, interpretation, and perception of space. We hope all of these paintings, whether recognizable or not, can spark joy and interest: Catherine Aldridge ’25, Emily Beun ’25, Emmi Burdine, Naiema Camm, Ava Cawrse, Trista Cleaves ’25, Aria Dean, Rose Foster, Gianna Guadagno, and Aryn Sale with Prof. Claire Stankus.