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Here, There: New Perspectives on the Collection

November 7, 2024 - February 22, 2025

Here, There: New Perspectives on the Collection is a guest-curated exhibition featuring modern and contemporary artworks from the Illinois State Museum. Three guest curators, Mariela Acuña, Sheridan Tucker Anderson, and Allison Laucher were invited to explore and bring a fresh perspective to the museum’s nearly 100-year-old collection of Illinois and regional artists. Their curatorial projects speak to themes of nostalgia, home, belonging, and sites of history in American art.

This exhibition, Here, There, came out of curiosity about whose experience we reflect in our collection. The guest curators explored the collection for underrepresented and historically marginalized artistic voices. Thie exhibition was made possible the support of the Terra Foundation for American Art’s Re-envisioning Permanent Collections initiative.

The curators have been in conversation around what a museum collection can tell us about ourselves. Is the collection a place of memory and nostalgia only? How are stories remembered? Are the records complete? What insight and experience do we bring to compare with the stories told in the collection? Can museum objects speak neutrally? How do we challenge the idea of the single story?