With facilities closed and performances halted, the arts community at West Virginia University has turned its attention to helping supply WVU Medicine with the products it needs while fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

Working with specifications from WVU Medicine, the costume shop in WVU’s School of Theatre & Dance has started production on N95 masks. Five volunteers from the school are spread out and working in the Falbo Theatre at WVU’s Loulie, Valerie and William Canady Creative Arts Center.

Art Museum of West Virginia University Director Todd J. Tubutis will take a closer look at the museum’s recently acquired photographs by Wendy Red Star during Lunchtime Looks on March 6.

Red Star is an Apsáalooke (Crow) artist, and an important figure in contemporary Native American photography. Her “Four Seasons” series depicts her in traditional dress posed against vividly colored artificial backdrops. They have the potential to stimulate powerful conversations about Native American representation and history.

Well before the Art Museum of West Virginia University opened in 2015, Curator Robert Bridges was adding objects to WVU’s permanent collection of fine art. The endless task of securing significant works of art ensures access to these pieces for future generations of West Virginians. “Brilliant: Recent Acquisitions to the Permanent Collection,” celebrates some of the newest additions to the collection as well as several seldom-seen “gems.”

Opening Feb. 7, “Brilliant” features more than 50 original works of art organized around the notion of an interconnected web, with themes ranging from abstraction to current affairs. This multi-faceted selection offers a range of possible conversations around contemporary artistic practices and social issues.

Dancers and modern art enthusiasts alike will want to stop in soon to the Art Museum of West Virginia University, where “Modern Movement: Figurative Works by Arthur Bowen Davies” is currently on display.

Originally organized by the Maier Museum of Art, this exhibition features rarely exhibited works on paper and oil paintings, including loans from the Randolph College and Malcolm Cosgrove-Davies Collections.

The Art Museum of West Virginia University welcomes two new works of art to the permanent collection, thanks to funds awarded by the International Fine Print Dealers Association Foundation.

The Richard Hamilton Acquisition Prize is an annual program through IFPDA Foundation, funded by Champion & Partners, that provides $10,000 for a museum’s acquisition of one or more prints from any period at the IFPDA Fine Art Print Fair.

The Art Museum of West Virginia University Educational Programs Manager Heather Harris was one of 26 museum professionals selected to attend a transatlantic seminar organized by Fulbright Germany and the Leibniz Association, in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. 

The seminar, “Museums as Spaces for Social Discourse and Learning,” focused on museums as unique sites of public discourse and spaces for dialogue, inquiry and engagement. The seminar aimed to deepen international understanding, while simultaneously supporting hands-on professional development, exchange of best practices, and lasting professional connections between curators, educators, and other museum professionals.