Category: Gallery Programs

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Fall of Freedom at St. Norbert College

St. Norbert College is participating in the national Fall of Freedom initiative through a series of exhibitions and events that explore questions of democracy, freedom, human rights, citizenship, and collective action through art and creative practice.

Student-Curated Exhibitions

At the center of the program are three exhibitions created and curated by students in the Art & Creative Democracy course. Working with collections held by St. Norbert College, students have developed exhibitions that connect historical materials and contemporary artistic practices to questions about how freedom is understood, contested, and experienced.

Two student-curated exhibitions draw from materials in Mulva Library Special Collections. Works from the God Bless Graffiti Coalition Box Set (2018) and the Celebrate People’s History Box Set (2015) will be presented in the display cases on the second floor of the Mulva Library, outside the Special Collections area.

The God Bless Graffiti Coalition box set brings together artists and activists using graffiti and public art as forms of political and social expression, while Celebrate People’s History features posters that highlight histories of organizing, resistance, and movements for social change. Together, these collections provide students with an opportunity to consider how artists use visual culture to document history, communicate ideas, and participate in movements for social change.

A third student-curated exhibition will be presented in the New Acquisitions Gallery on the second floor of the Bush Art Center. Drawing from the Community Defense: Voces de la Frontera / Voces de los Artistas portfolio, the exhibition considers the role of art and graphic production in responding to questions of immigration, dignity, and community defense.

These exhibitions result from an arts-based research and curatorial process in which students worked directly with institutional collections to investigate how art can function as public research, historical documentation, and civic engagement.

Fall of Freedom Handwriting the Constitution: Drop-In Session

Handwriting the Constitution Art photographed by Tom Janssen in the Bush Art Center

As part of Fall of Freedom, the Bush Art Center will also host a drop-in session for Morgan O’Hara’s Handwriting the Constitution from 12:00–2:00 p.m.

Handwriting the Constitution is a social art project that artist Morgan O’Hara began in 2017. The project invites people to gather in public spaces and handwrite the United States Constitution or other documents created to protect human rights and freedoms. Through the physical act of writing, participants are encouraged to slow down and engage directly with foundational texts, considering the rights and responsibilities they articulate. The drop-in session offers students, faculty, staff, and community members an opportunity to participate in the project as part of the broader Fall of Freedom program.

Other Exhibitions on View in the Bush Art Center

The Fall of Freedom programming takes place alongside several other exhibitions currently on view in the St. Norbert College Art Galleries, creating opportunities to explore these questions from a range of historical and artistic perspectives.

Art Against the Odds, Baer Gallery

Art Against the Odds features work by artists who are currently or formerly incarcerated within Wisconsin’s justice system. The exhibition highlights the creativity, resilience, and diverse experiences of artists impacted by incarceration while inviting consideration of the intersections of art, justice, human dignity, and self-expression. The exhibition also marks the establishment of the Wisconsin Prison Art Research Collection at St. Norbert College. Generously donated by the Portrait Society Gallery in Milwaukee, the collection will serve as a permanent resource for teaching, research, and public engagement, supporting continued inquiry into art within carceral systems and the broader social, cultural, and historical contexts of incarceration in Wisconsin.

Handwriting the Constitution, Godschalx Gallery

Morgan O’Hara’s Handwriting the Constitution is a participatory social art project centered on handwriting foundational documents. The project encourages participants to engage with the Constitution through focused, contemplative writing, creating space for reflection on the rights and freedoms the text articulates.

Just, Media Space Gallery

On view in the Media Space Gallery, Joon Soo Ha’s Just transforms the iconic American flag into a site of shifting meaning and interpretation. Through repeated reproduction and alteration using digital and analog processes, including video, printing, photocopying, scanning, and re-rendering, the work explores how context shapes the ways symbols are understood. 

Voices of Freedom, Permanent Collection Gallery

Voices of Freedom brings together works from the Carving Out Rights, Voices From Outside, and Voces de los Artistas: Community Defense portfolios. Featuring artists engaging with issues of human rights, incarceration, immigration, and community defense, the exhibition shows how printmaking and graphic art can address questions of rights, dignity, and social responsibility.

Together, these exhibitions and events offer multiple ways to consider the meaning of freedom, not as a single idea or historical condition, but as an ongoing subject of artistic inquiry, civic participation, and public conversation.

Join us for Fall of Freedom Friday, October 2nd!

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Fall Exhibitions in the Bush Art Center

This fall, the Bush Art Center Galleries at St. Norbert College present a series of exhibitions exploring the relationships between art, democracy, human rights, justice, and civic participation. Together, these exhibitions demonstrate the power of art to foster reflection, dialogue, and public engagement while examining the ways individuals and communities navigate questions of freedom, rights, belonging, and collective responsibility.

Art Against the Odds

Art Against the Odds features work by artists who are currently or formerly incarcerated within Wisconsin’s justice system. Highlighting the creativity, resilience, and diverse experiences of artists impacted by incarceration, the exhibition invites viewers to consider the intersections of art, justice, human dignity, and self-expression.

The exhibition also marks the establishment of the Wisconsin Prison Art Research Collection at St. Norbert College. Generously donated by the Portrait Society Gallery in Milwaukee, the collection will serve as a permanent resource for teaching, research, and public engagement. As a growing archive, it will support ongoing inquiry into the role of art within carceral systems and the broader social, cultural, and historical contexts of incarceration in Wisconsin.

By preserving these works and making them accessible to students, scholars, artists, and community members, the collection creates new opportunities for dialogue about creativity, rehabilitation, social justice, and the lived experiences of those impacted by incarceration.

Handwriting the Constitution

Handwriting the Constitution is a social art project begun in 2017 by artist Morgan O’Hara. The project invites people from all walks of life to gather in public spaces to handwrite the United States Constitution or other documents created to protect human rights and freedoms.

Developed as a form of concentrated writing and civic reflection, the project encourages participants to slow down and engage deeply with foundational texts. Through hand-copying, participants often discover new meanings in familiar documents, gaining a deeper understanding of the rights and responsibilities embedded in democratic society.

The exhibition arrives at a particularly meaningful moment as the United States marks its Semiquincentennial year, the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding. Visitors are invited to engage directly with the Constitution and reflect on its continuing role in shaping the promises, challenges, and aspirations of American democracy.

The exhibition, Morgan O’Hara’s campus visit, and all related public programs are made possible through the generous support of the Norman Miller Center for Peace, Justice, and Public Understanding.

Voices of Freedom

Voices of Freedom brings together works from three important portfolios: Carving Out Rights, Voices From Outside, and Community Defense: Voces de los Artistas. Through printmaking and graphic art, the exhibition examines issues of human rights, incarceration, immigration, and community defense. The exhibition includes work by artists responding to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, challenging the prison-industrial complex, and working alongside immigrant rights movements to support communities impacted by detention, deportation, and family separation.

Collectively, these works demonstrate how art can serve as a form of civic participation and public education, and highlight how artists contribute to broader struggles for justice and human dignity while creating visual languages that inform, mobilize, and connect communities.

Just

Also on view is Just (2002) by Korean artist Joon Soo Ha. Through the progressive degradation and transformation of image and sound, the work reconsiders one of the most recognizable symbols in American culture: the flag.

Repeatedly reproduced through digital and analog processes, including video, photocopying, printing, scanning, and re-rendering, the image gradually shifts away from its familiar form. In doing so, Just asks viewers to consider how symbols acquire meaning, how context shapes interpretation, and how cultural narratives evolve over time. Rather than presenting a fixed statement, the work creates space for reflection on the instability of images, the construction of meaning, and the ways visual culture influences public understanding.

Exhibition Dates & Public Programs

Taken together, these exhibitions demonstrate the many ways art can function as a form of public scholarship and civic engagement. Whether through the voices of incarcerated artists, the contemplative act of handwriting the Constitution, or the reexamination of national symbols, each exhibition invites visitors to think critically about democracy, human rights, justice, and the role of culture in public life. The St. Norbert College Art Department invites students, faculty, staff, and community members to engage with these exhibitions and the important conversations they can inspire.

Throughout the semester, a variety of public programs will accompany the exhibitions, including artist lectures, curator talks, gallery discussions, research presentations, and participatory engagement opportunities. Featured events include a campus visit by artist Morgan O’Hara, curator programs related to Art Against the Odds, and public Handwriting the Constitution sessions.

These exhibitions will open on August 24, 2026, and a public reception celebrating all four exhibitions will be held on September 10 from 6:00–7:30 p.m. in the Bush Art Center Galleries.

For exhibition schedules, exhibition program information, and gallery hours, please visit the Bush Art Center Galleries website.

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Masking Tape Recovered

Bill Bohne’ Masking Tape (Early 1970s, Date Unknown)
Single Channel Video transferred from ¾” UMATIC Tape B/W, Silent, 11:50


Bill Bohne’s video Masking Tape was created in the vein of early conceptual video art, specifically within the mode often described as “performance for camera.” Emerging in the late 1960s alongside the growing accessibility of portable video technologies, this approach was adopted by many artists exploring the possibilities of this experimental medium. These artists used the camera as the primary site of the work itself. Typically employing fixed framing, minimal editing, and durational actions. Such works foreground the body, repetition, and constraint while stripping away narrative and spectacle in favor of conceptual procedure.

Masking Tape adheres closely to these conceptual strategies. The camera remains static, focused on a head-and-shoulders composition as Bohne methodically places disposable dust masks over his face, one after another, throughout the tape. The action is simple, repetitive, and task-based, aligning the work with conceptual art’s emphasis on systems and instructions. At the same time, the accumulating masks gradually become sculpturally absurd and begin to impede the mask’s function, introducing a subtle tension between safety and suffocation.

Originally recorded on 3/4″ U-MATIC tape, the video was rediscovered in a storage area of the Bush Art Center and later transferred to digital format by Archival Works in St. Paul, Minnesota. This material history reinforces the work’s origin in an early moment of video experimentation, when artists worked with emerging, often fragile recording technologies that have since required preservation to prevent deterioration.

Viewed today, Masking Tape accrues new layers of meaning. The act of placing mask upon mask, once read primarily through the lens of conceptual procedure or performance endurance, now inevitably recalls the lived experience of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. What may have originally functioned as an abstract or absurd gesture takes on renewed resonance as an image of protection, anxiety, and the social politics of masking. The work’s repetitive accumulation mirrors the psychological weight of prolonged crisis. In this way, Bohne’s video not only participates in the historical discourse of early video art but also demonstrates how such works can be reactivated by contemporary conditions, generating meanings beyond their original intention and context.


– Brandon Bauer, Associate Professor of Art (2026)

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Opening Tonight with a Special Presentation!

Join us tonight, 6:00–7:30 PM at the Bush Art Center for an evening celebrating 70 years of art at St. Norbert College.

Experience four exhibitions: the Senior Capstone Exhibition in the Baer Gallery, new work by Donald P. Taylor in the Godschalx Gallery, Past Present Future featuring faculty across generations in the Permanent Collection Gallery, and Masking Tape, a rediscovered early video work by Bill Bohne in the Media Space Gallery.

The evening also includes a special screening of Bill Bohne’s The Last Lecture in BAC 130!

Bill Bohne – Last Lecture: A Performance Piece (1974)
B/W, sound, 31:11, VHS transfer to digital video (original video source unknown)

Bill Bohne’s Last Lecture: A Performance Piece (1974) is a work in the vein of early conceptual video art, emphasizing duration, repetition, and the body. This approach frames performance as a procedural and conceptual act rather than a theatrical event.

The video begins with humorous meditations on the notion of the “last,” moving between popular culture and high art while foregrounding the lecture as a constructed performance. Language becomes both subject and material through repetition and self-reflexive commentary. Bohne states, “I don’t want to be there for my last lecture,” and goes on to say, “You’ll notice when you look around the room this evening that I am not there, only in a mediumistic manner.” These statements destabilize presence and authorship, aligning the work with conceptual strategies that privilege idea over object.

Formally, the video adheres to and disrupts the conventions of performance for the camera. Bohne’s face is never fully visible, either cropped out or turned away, reinforcing the sense of absence. Repetition structures both language and movement, while rudimentary analog editing reflects the technological conditions of early video.

Described by Bohne as a “death avoidance fake-out,” the work culminates in his promise to give the lecture the “run-around.” For the remainder of the tape, he circles the camera continuously. After briefly attempting to follow him, the camera returns to a fixed position, allowing him to pass through the frame at regular intervals, foregrounding a static viewpoint and durational action central to early conceptual video practice. The soundtrack layers repeated phrases of “this is my last lecture,” which Bohne describes as an incantation. This accumulation transforms language into a rhythmic, quasi-ritualistic structure, collapsing meaning into sound and duration. In this way, Last Lecture exemplifies how early conceptual video reduces performance to procedural constraints through which presence, authorship, and temporality are tested with both rigor and humor.

– Brandon Bauer (2026)

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New Spring Exhibitions – Past Present Future!

The Bush Art Center Galleries are pleased to present a new slate of spring exhibitions celebrating the past, present, and future of the St. Norbert College Art Department.

This year marks a significant milestone: the 70th anniversary of the Art department and the 25th anniversary of the Bush Art Center as our department home!

The Art program was established in 1956 to bring art education to the campus community. Founded by Professor Daniel F. Dickhut, the College’s first full-time art faculty member and notably its first lay faculty member. The Art department played a pivotal role in shaping the institution’s evolution. In many ways, the Art department helped usher in a more expansive, interdisciplinary academic environment at St. Norbert College.

The exhibitions on view reflect this legacy, featuring selections from the permanent collection, new work by past and present faculty, and the Senior Capstone Exhibition, which highlights the achievements of graduating seniors as they prepare to carry their creative practices beyond the College and into the broader world.

Exhibitions Include:

  • 2026 Senior Capstone Exhibition (Baer Gallery)
    Featuring work by Margaret Byrne, Itzel Chavarria-Castaneda, Lara Deshler, Kyler Lasee, Finn Noto, Meredith Posanski, Tyli Scheetz, and G. Szczerba.
  • Donald P. Taylor: are you making any Art? (Godschalx Gallery)
    Presenting new work by emeritus faculty member and former gallery director Donald P. Taylor.
  • Past Present Future (Permanent Collection Gallery)
    Showcasing work by current and former faculty, including Brandon Bauer, Bill Bohne, Daniel Dickhut, Abbey Gagne, John Gordon, Jim Neilson, Charles Peterson, Brian Pirman, Marilyn Stasiak, Donald Taylor, and Michael Wartgow.
  • Masking Tape by Bill Bohne (Media Space Gallery)
    A work of early video art recently rediscovered and digitally archived for exhibition.

The opening reception will take place on April 17, 2026, from 6:00–7:30 p.m. and will include a special presentation of Bill Bohne’s video performance piece, The Last Lecture, in the Bush Art Center Lecture Hall (BAC 130).

Please join us in celebrating 70 years of art at St. Norbert College and the vibrant community of artists, educators, and students who continue to shape its future.

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Storied Lives: Select Works by David Graham and Terri Warpinski

Storied Lives is an exhibition of remarkable photographs, featuring portraits by David Graham from his book Land of the Free and selections from Death|s|trip by Terri Warpinski.

Terri Warpinski, Anton Walzer, October 8, 1962

Accompanying Warpinski’s photographs are laser-cut text panels, which overlay historical maps. According to Warpinski’s artist statement,

Death[s]trip is a story of human mortality written on the landscape. In looking at present day Berlin through the filter of history, these works combine contemporary photographs and text with archival elements to reveal some of the consequences of enforced political borders. From 1961-1989, 140 individuals died in failed attempts to flee over the Berlin Wall from Soviet occupied East Germany to freedom in West Berlin. Focusing on these victims, Death|s|trip probes the contingent properties of meaning, memory, and reflection in relation to both the landscape and the photographic image.

Each site was photographed on the date that coincides with the anniversary of the victim’s death, in the specific location where the event took place.

David Graham describes his work as follows:

Land of the Free is photographer David Graham’s tribute to the American people in all their idiosyncratic splendor. A tireless traveler and a natural-born visual storyteller, Graham has photographed ordinary folks in their homes, at work, and at play across the nation to assemble a composite picture of America. Graham’s colorful portraits showcase the personalities who give America its character.

David Graham, Todd Gerding as a Hessian Granadier, Richboro, PA

Storied Lives is on display now in the Baer Gallery until September 21. Graham and Warpinski are the directors and curators of NewARTSpace, a local gallery and studio just across the bridge in downtown De Pere, Wisconsin.

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Spring 23 in the Galleries

Stephanie Carpenter, Kinship: Belonging, 2019, Letterpress print from wood type

Stephanie Carpenter: Cultivating Community 

Baer Gallery 

January 23 -February 16

Coffee and Pastry Reception: Tuesday, February 7, 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. 

Stephanie Carpenter examines the way we create unique communities. She explores modularity and the use of language related to how we are connected. She earned an MFA from Indiana University and her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally in Australia, Brazil, India, Italy and Japan. 

Object Matters

Godschalx Gallery 

January 23 -February 16

Explorations in clay, wood, and found objects by students in Art 224, Introduction to Sculpture. 

Speculative Futures: Visions from Caregiving Printmakers

Baer Gallery 

February 27 -March 28

Exhibition events: 

March 23, 10 a.m. Bush Art Center: Panel discussion in BAC 130 with artists Katie Ries and Carrie Scanga, and labor historian Jessica Wilkerson. Panel followed by a reception in the gallery.

Speculative Futures is a portfolio of prints that imagine the future of caregiving. All of the participating artists are caregiving printmakers. The portfolio includes an essay by labor historian Jessica Wilkerson. 

Design Localitas

Godschalx Gallery 

February 27 -March 28

Featuring designs by the St. Norbert College Student Design Center.

2023 Senior Art Exhibition

Bush Art Center 

April 11- May 4

Reception: Friday, April 21, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.

The Senior Art Exhibition is the capstone experience for all St. Norbert College art majors.

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Aram Han Sifuentes — Let Us Vote!

According to exhibition curator Brandon Bauer, “this exhibition brings together works by Aram Han Sifuentes that focus on democracy, citizenship, and political participation. The works in this exhibition manifest the notion of democracy as a contested space in which one can gain a political voice through citizenship, protest, or giving voice to those excluded politically.” It includes handmade protest banners, an Official Unofficial Voting Station, and a banner lending library.

A central feature of the exhibition is a wall of handmade protest banners. Sifuentes hosts workshops to teach sewing skills and banner-making techniques, passing on a traditional, intergenerational skills while drawing communities into conversation about protest and demonstration. Some banners were created by Sifuentes or during previous lending libraries, but a collection of banners made by campus community members are available to be checked out. Next to the poster is an instructional video on how to create a fabric banner with felt letters. A banner making workshop, with instruction by Moki Tantoco, will be taking place at noon on Thursday, October 20 at noon in the Mulva Library.

The St Norbert Community’s Protest Banner Lending Library

The Official Unofficial Voting Station is a symbolic voting station open to all. In addition to creating opportunities for anyone to cast a vote, stations bring together communities for conversation, protest, and celebration. Sifuentes, as a noncitizen immigrant, created the program in response to her inability to vote. The first iteration, prior to the 2016 election, included 25 collaborative activations of the station through performances and installations. The project was reiterated during the 2020 elections, with 50 voting station kits sent across the nation. A voting station is housed online, along with a developing archive of responses and vote tallies.

At the Bush Art Center’s Official Unofficial Voting Station, gallery visitors can fill out a freeform kind of ballot, sharing the reasons that they vote, as well as listing local, national, and global issues they’d like to vote on. The Official Unofficial Voting Station, a station for all people and for all issues, creates conversation around who can vote, and what issues visitors most want brought to the ballot. The anonymous ballot responses will be recorded and archived.

Ballots, a ballot box, and stickers, as well as voting rights informational handouts.

The exhibition will be on display between October 3 and October 27, with a reception from 2 p.m.-3:30 p.m., on Thursday, Oct. 20.

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