Land Grant

Main Level, Contemporary Gallery

Organized by the graduate students of ARTH 546, a practicum in curatorial methods: Alyssa Bralower, Yue Dai, Evin Dubois, Maria Garth, Michael Hurley, Cory Imig, Lilah Leopold, Jenny Peruski, Luis Gonzalo Pinilla, and Allison Rowe
The course was led by Terri Weissman, Associate Professor of Art History, and Amy L. Powell, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

The year 2017 marks the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of the founding of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Land Grant draws from libraries, archives, and collections across campus to propose an expanded field for considering the university—its founding and history, land use practices, and questions of indigeneity—all while assessing the current status of public higher education in the United States. Recognizing the ability of images to both legitimize and contest power, and experimenting with curatorial methods of evidence and inquiry, this exhibition takes stock of where we, as university students, stand today in relation to such questions.

In addition to individual lenders, Land Grant works with materials from Krannert Art Museum, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, University Archives, the Illinois History and Lincoln Collections, Ricker Library of Architecture and Art, the Geological Samples Library, the President’s Office, the College of Engineering, and the Champaign County Historical Archives at The Urbana Free Library.

Sponsored in part by Fox Development Corporation