2008-2009
The Structure of Buildings
June-August 2009
Unexpected Discoveries: Finding Art in Government Documents
June-August, 2009
Since the mid-19th century, artists and photographers have been commissioned to produce illustrations and photographs for the US Government. These wonderful images – ranging from detailed studies of insects, full-color lithographs of turtle eggs, and photographs of the Western landscape – were published in documents and reports produced by various government agencies. In 2008, Library curator Margaret Pezalla-Granlund and reference librarian Heather Tompkins were awarded the Haas Travel Award to research these amazing illustrations, and to curate a series of exhibitions based on their research. This exhibit offers a preview of their discoveries.
The 23rd Annual Off-Campus Studies Photo Exhibit
April 27 – August, 2009
An annual favorite of Carleton students, faculty and staff, the Off Campus Studies Photo Contest exhibition will open with a celebration on Monday, April 27. A panel of judges will select 25 photographs from over 200 entries, awarding prizes in the person, place, story, and library categories. The campus community is invited to vote for the People’s Choice Award on the OCS.
Vispoeologee: An Anthology of Visual Literature
April 13 - August 2009
Since 1988, the Minnesota Center for Book Arts has invited local writers, artists, and bibliophiles to participate in the creation of the annual 
Winter Book. 2007's collaboration was Vispoeologee which loosely translates to a visual literature anthology. Through the book's numerous components including a "poetry generator" and mail art, different poets and artists are able to express their own interpretations of "visual poetry."
That Marvelous Legend: The Canals of Mars
March 31-August 2009
In the late 19th century – several astronomers, including Schiaparelli of Italy reported seeing canal-like structures – dark, straight streaks cross the surface of the planet.
Speculation on the nature of life on Mars ran wild in the popular and scientific press. While there were a few dissenters, astronomers around the world reported seeing the canals. The canals, which some scientists estimated to be dozens of miles wide and hundreds of miles long, appeared on most published maps of the planet.
Not all who looked found the canals, however. Even at the height of the Martian frenzy, there were observers who could not see the canals, and disputed their existence.
Although the “marvelous legend” of the Martian canals was discredited early in the 20th century, the imagined possibly that some form of hidden life flourishes on the desert planet persists even today.
Photographers & Authors
Photographers & Authors
March 31 – August, 2009
Gould Library is fortunate to own a significant collection of portraits of twentieth-century authors made by notable photographers. The Photographers and Authors collection was created by Carleton parents Raphael and Jane Bernstein to mark the 1984 expansion of Gould Library and is exhibited every two years to celebrate outstanding achievements in the literary and visual arts.
P&A Spotlight: Gisèle Freund
March 31 – August, 2009
This year, Gould Library is highlighting a group of eleven photographs by Gisèle Freund (1909-2001), a photographer and writer who made portraits some of the most interesting literary figures of 20th century including James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Jean Cocteau, Colette, and Simone de Beauvoir. The intimacy of the photographs captures the close relationships between the photographer and her subjects.
Photographers & Authors Special Exhibition
Christopher Felver: Beats & Cohorts
April, 2009 In conjunction with the exhibition of the Photographers & Authors collection, Gould Libr ary is pleased to announce a special exhibition of the photographic portraits of San Francisco photographer Christopher Felver. For thirty years, Felver has photographed writers, artists and musicians, and, as Lawrence Ferlinghetti memorably described them, the “beats and cohorts,” artists and poets inspired by the beat message of the 1950s. This exhibition will feature a selection of images chosen to complement Carleton’s collection of author photographs and includes portraits of Ferlinghetti, William Burroughs, and Kathy Acker.
This exhibition was organized with the kind assistance of Christopher Felver, Ann Ruhr Pifer, and The Grand Hand Gallery in St. Paul. Grand Hand Gallery Website Chris Felver Online
Pulp Fiction and Fact
March 17 – June 15, 2009 This exhibition will feature the work of students in Paper Arts, a course on hand papermaking taught by Jeff Rathermel, artistic director for Minnesota Center for Book Arts. During the term, students explored both Eastern and Western papermaking techniques to create sheet paper, hand-bound books, and sculptural paper objects. Work displayed demonstrates the various source fibers used in the process, the variety of nontraditional forms paper can take and the general flexibility of the medium.
Color Photography
January 5 – March 15, 2009
In vivid reds, yellows, oranges, blues and greens, a group of ground-breaking photographers captured the American scene of the 1970s through their distinctive work in color photography. This exhibition features books by seven important photographers from Gould Library’s collections.
From Darkness Toward Light: Restoring the Reference Room Quotation
January 5 – March 15, 2009
When the new library opened in 1956, one of the walls featured a quote by Polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen. At the time of the library’s dedication the raised letters of the quote were painted in multiple colors and an intricate pattern. Over the years, the colors were painted over and the quote nearly faded into the wall behind it and no record remained of the original color scheme. Newly repainted in a palette we hope honors the original scheme, the quote has been restored to its former prominence.
Hawthorne and The House of Seven Gables
Coinciding with the Carleton Players' new adaption of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The House of Seven Gables, Gould Library is featuring several Special Collections books about New England History, home and garden design of the 19th century, as well as works by Hawthorne and his contemporaries. Press Release for The House of Seven Gables
Portraits of Home: Veterans in Search of Shelter in Greater Minnesota
January 9 – March 1, 2009
The personal impact that the lack of affordable housing has on the lives of people in Minnesota is often unmentioned and hidden. Portraits of Home, a photography exhibit sponsored by Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, a team of photographers has captured how veterans and their families in greater Minnesota struggle with poor housing conditions, the lack of a home and managing life with few resources.
For more information, visit the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund
How to Read Character: Acting, Gesture & the Art of Melodramatic Expression
January 5 –March 15, 2009
This exhibition features a wide selection of books, periodicals, pamphlets and contemporary artists’ books chosen to complement Modernizing Melodrama, an exhibit exploring the ongoing power and persistence of melodrama, which is on view in the Carleton College Art Gallery from January 9 — 12 March 2009. Click here for more information on Modernizing Melodrama and events
Songs of the Great War
An Exhibition to Commemorate the 90th Anniversary of the World War I Armistice
October 9 – December 7, 2008
Ninety years ago an armistice was signed on November 11th to end a conflict which soon came to be known as the Great War. This is an apt designation, for the war that raged in Europe, Africa, the Near East, and the Far East from 1914 to 1918 was a defining moment in the history of the world. It was a bloodletting beyond anything one could have conceived of at the time—over 40 million soldiers and civilians either killed or wounded—and the impact was as much psychological as it was physical. The horror of the war and its aftermath caused people to reexamine traditional values, and the social, economic, political, and aesthetic changes which the war brought have consequences to this day. This exhibition brings together for the first time on campus original printed materials and artifacts from the Great War. The largest section is devoted to American sheet music, which helps to document the changing attitudes of the American public toward the war. Included among the more than 40 songs are such famous ones as Over There and How ‘Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree?). In addition to the sheet music, one case is devoted to postcards, another to artifacts, and two to books and pamphlets. The exhibition is part of much larger program of events, including weekly public lectures, a film series, and a musical performance of Stravinsky's The Soldier’s Tale. Together, these exhibits and events will help to underscore why the First World War has come to be known as the Great War. For more information, check out: http://apps.carleton.edu/events/wwi/
The Structure of Nature
Photography Books from Gould Library
October through December 7, 2008
This exhibition features books of photography by several significant twentieth-century photographers. The display features two volumes from Karl Blossfeldt’s groundbreaking Art Forms in Nature which features hundreds of finely detailed images of stems, leaves, flowers, and seeds, photographed to emphasize the form, texture, and volume of the specimens. The display also includes a 1946 catalog of Edward Weston’s photography, published by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and a book of nature photographs by Horst P. Horst, who is best-known for his work as a fashion photographer.
Traversing Borders Through Art:
An Art Exhibition for International Education Week
October through December 7, 2008
International Education week is an acknowledgement and celebration of the growing international community that is integral to Carleton. Every year, the office of International Student Programs at Carleton, dedicates a week to a theme that is of global concern and importance, to create more awareness of international issues and to enrich the dynamic learning process at Carleton. This is done through a series of events such as panel discussions, student talk groups, speakers brought on campus, film showings etc. This year to engage more of our visual senses we are attempting to showcase our theme of “Immigration and the Transitions Inherent in Crossing Borders” through an art exhibition.
Before Their Time: The World of Child Labor
Photographs by Dr. David Parker
September 9 through October 8, 2008 Photographs by Dr. David Parker, a Minneapolis-based physician and photographer who has documented working children, labor conditions, and public health problems around the world. [To coincide with the Common Reading, Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy]
Paula McCartney
Interpreting Nature: 6 artist’s books
September 9 through October 1, 2008
Inspired by natural history illustrations, Victorian botany journals, Audubon’s Birds of America, nature field guides, and the studies of Karl Blossfeldt, artist an Paula McCartney uses the scientific practice of collecting specimens as a starting point for her work. McCartney’s work is in the artist book collections of the Museum of Modern Art in NY, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, The Legion of Honor Museum in SF, the Special Collections of Stanford University Libraries, the UCLA Arts Library and the Art of the Book Collection at Yale University, among others. Her work has been exhibited nationally and is part of the Midwest Photographers Project at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago.
Precision & Beauty:The Avian and Oological Illustrations of John L. and Robert Ridgeway
June 15 – September 30, 2008
In the late nineteenth- and early twentieth century, brothers Robert and John L. Ridgway produced many fine examples of avian and oological (egg) illustrations. Carleton College is fortunate to have a number of volumes featuring the brothers’ illustrations, many of which were published in government publications and collected by the college in its role as a depository library for government documents.
The mission of the Laurence McKinley Gould Art and Exhibitions Program is to bring library users into daily contact with works of art, artifacts, and natural objects in a spirit of discovery and learning. Through formal exhibitions, the display of artworks and objects, and activities that engage the Carleton community, the Art and Exhibitions Program will foster aesthetic appreciation, intellectual curiosity, and interdisciplinary connections.
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