A major exhibition at the Art Museum of West Virginia University this spring explores society’s relationship with the violin and its meanings over time and across the globe.

For nearly the entire history of the medium, violins have appeared in photographs in ways that signify talent, status, geography, and culture—and have often been presented as beautiful objects unto themselves.

George Lilley, a longtime supporter of West Virginia University, has donated $50,000 to the Art Museum of WVU to support a new major acquisitions fund.

Lilley has lived and worked in West Virginia for more than 50 years. Together with his wife, Mavis Grant, the couple has a passion for helping their community with an emphasis on creating opportunities for art education.

The Art Museum of West Virginia University reopens for the spring semester on Saturday, Jan. 21, with new exhibitions in both galleries, including “In/Humanity: Combat and War in Art.”

“In/Humanity: Combat and War in Art” focuses on how war and combat are inextricably part of the human experience, and art helps us make sense of the ways such conflict brings out the worst—and sometimes the best—in society. 

The Art Museum of West Virginia University celebrated its seventh birthday last month. Since its opening in August 2015, the museum has inspired and educated more than 35,000 visitors.

The Art Museum of WVU’s mission to provide a welcoming and stimulating educational and research environment for diverse audiences to experience the transforming power of art wouldn’t be possible without incredible donors who helped fund the building, the museum’s collection of more than 4,000 works of art, programming and traveling exhibitions.

The Art Museum of West Virginia University is pleased to announce generous support from Art Bridges to develop and tour a major exhibition of the work of Blanche Lazzell, one of the most progressive American artists of the first half of the twentieth century. A West Virginia native, Lazzell created some of the earliest abstract paintings in the United States and is one of only 23 artists currently represented in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century American Modernism. While Lazzell’s role in avant-garde American art is recognized within specialists’ circles, she has not received a major solo exhibition in nearly two decades and is due for a reassessment. The award from Art Bridges allows the Art Museum of West Virginia University to create such an exhibition from their extensive holdings, now increased by the museum’s acquisition of four new works by the artist, including the white line color woodblock print West Virginia University Farmhouse (1950).

Established in 2017, the Art Bridges foundation is dedicated to expanding access to American art across the U.S. Art Bridges works with museums of all sizes to provide financial and strategic support to get art out of storage and into communities. The foundation supports arts projects that educate, insprire, and deepen engagement with local audiences. 

The Art Museum of West Virginia University presents “Storywork: The Prints of Marie Watt, From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation” through Dec. 11.

Located in the Upper Gallery at the Art Museum of WVU, “Storywork” celebrates the work of Marie Watt (Seneca, b. 1967), one of the country’s most celebrated contemporary artists, whose work draws on personal experience, Indigenous traditions, proto-feminism, mythology, and art history.
“Storywork” is a comprehensive look at Watt’s 30-year career, including more than 50 original prints and sculptural works. The exhibition also showcases Watt’s deep veneration for Indigenous narratives, especially those informed by her own Seneca heritage.