Art Museum and Galleries at W&L: Winter 2026 Programs and Exhibitions Explore exhibitions and collections at the Art Museum and Galleries with select programming through May.

By Emily Innes Stanley
December 17, 2025

The Art Museum and Galleries at Washington and Lee University is currently hosting five temporary exhibitions that will run through Winter Term 2026. An exciting lineup of programs will accompany the exhibits, underscoring the importance of university museums as essential civic spaces that ignite curiosity, confront urgent ethical questions and shape our collective appreciation of art, history and culture.

“Edward Burtynsky: Taking Place” is on view in the Reeves Museum of Ceramics through April 18 and invites viewers to reflect on how nature is deeply transformed through the human production of modern-day comforts. Edward Burtynsky’s large-format aerial photographs are both compelling and troubling, bearing witness to the impact of human beings on nature and encouraging us to reflect on our environmental impact.

“Moffat Takadiwa: Recoded Memories” is on view in the Watson Galleries through May 31. An immersive installation by Zimbabwean artist Moffat Takadiwa, the exhibit features expansive sculptural installations that repurpose discarded materials into intricate, tapestry-like forms. The installation urges viewers to reconsider the environmental and cultural imprints of everyday life, inviting the audience to reflect on the lifecycle of materials and the global systems that shape what is used, valued and ultimately discarded.

“Luminous Layers: Glazed Surfaces and the Art of Reflection” is on view in the Reeves Museum of Ceramics through May 31. Drawing from the museum’s permanent collection, the installation features monochrome porcelains dating back to the eighth century, highlighting glazes that refract, pool and shimmer as they capture and release light.

“Points of Exchange: Asian Ceramics in the Reeves Collection” is on view in the Reeves Museum of Ceramics through May 31. Featuring a selection of earthenware, stoneware and porcelain from the museum’s permanent collection, the exhibit highlights the complex cultural dialogues and economic networks that have shaped the history of Asian ceramics, both domestic and export, dating back to the 16th century.

“Expressions of Color: Paintings by Evelyn Dawson” is on view in the McCarthy Gallery in Holekamp Hall through May 31. Featuring works by Evelyn Dawson gifted to the university by her second husband, Larry Wynn ’34, the exhibit celebrates the power and effects of color in art.

All exhibits are free and open to the public, and those interested in scheduling a guided tour can email museums@wlu.edu for more information. The W&L community is invited to schedule guided tours of the exhibitions. 

Additional Programming and Events

In addition to the various exhibitions, several workshops and events on campus during Winter Term will be free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. Reservations may be required for select events.

Artful Yoga: Museum Mindfulness Initiative | Select Mondays this winter in the Watson Galleries, noon-1 p.m.
Join the Art Museum and Galleries and Stephanie Sandberg, GroupEx yoga instructor and associate professor of theatre and film at W&L, for gentle yoga sessions each month in the museum gallery. Each session offers full-body movement and awakening, with welcoming modifications for both newcomers and seasoned yogis. Sessions will be held from noon to 1 p.m. on Jan. 12, Feb. 9, March 9 and April 13. Yoga mats will be provided and reservations are required.

MLK Week Open House at Watson Galleries | Jan. 20, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Join the Art Museum and Galleries for a special open house in celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Week, featuring artworks connected to the Civil Rights movement. African American artistic legacies will be on display, with insights from Wendy Castenell, assistant professor of art history, and Meaghan Walsh, the Louise C. Herreshoff Curatorial Fellow in American Art. This event is free and open to all.

Contemporary African Art and the Politics of Waste | Jan. 30 at 5:30 p.m. in Northen Auditorium
Join Clement Akpang, assistant professor of art history at George Washington University and guest curator of Moffat Takadiwa’s “Recoded Memories,” for a lecture on how the creative appropriation of post-consumer materials has become a defining feature of contemporary African art. Drawing on the works of Takadiwa, Akpang will examine how contemporary African artists across the continent have gained international recognition for transforming discarded objects into conceptually charged works, confronting global inequalities and environmental injustice, probing ongoing colonial legacies and articulating urgent critiques of social, political, economic and gender issues.

Curator-Led Exhibition Tours with Clement Akpang | Jan. 31, 11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. in Watson Galleries
Join guest curator Clement Akpang for three insightful 30-minute tours of Moffat Takadiwa’s “Recoded Memories.” Pre-registration is required for the tours, which will be held on Jan. 31 at 11 a.m., noon and 1 p.m.

Lunch and Learn | Select Wednesdays in February, 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m. in Watson Galleries
The W&L Art Museum will host “Lunch and Learn,” a series of lectures that highlight how artists and objects reveal environmental, cultural and historical connections. Lunch will be provided, and RSVP is required.

• Brendan O’Donnell, director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s Climate and Environment Policy Program, will present “Environmental Art” on Feb. 11. He will discuss the role art plays in environmental movements, drawing connections between the exhibits “Moffat Takadiwa: Recoded Memories” and “Edward Burtynsky: Taking Place.” Pre-registration is required.
• Fosca Maddaloni-Yu, the Euchlin D. Reeves Curatorial Fellow in Ceramic Art at W&L, presents “150 Years of Art & Counting” on Feb. 18. She will discuss a range of works, including a Neolithic jar that highlights some of the earliest ceramic technologies in China, porcelain fragments fused with coral and barnacle growth that bear traces of centuries spent on the ocean floor and a punch bowl that embodies the complex cultural negotiations at the heart of the Canton trade. The session will include a sneak peek viewing of three ceramic objects to be featured in the upcoming exhibition celebrating 150 years of the W&L art collection. Pre-registration is required.

Fireside Chat with Former Ambassador Brian A. Nichols | March 12 at 6:30 p.m., Stackhouse Theater
Brian A. Nichols, former U.S. ambassador to Peru and Zimbabwe, will join Seth Cantey, the Lewis G. John Term Professor of Politics at W&L, for a fireside chat presented in conjunction with Moffat Takadiwa’s exhibit “Recoded Memories.” The conversation will explore the soft power of art, humanitarian and environmental crises, global power rivalries and the evolving landscape of democracy, drawing on Ambassador Nichols’ diplomatic career in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Pre-registration is required.

More Than a Prop: Native Arts in Western American Painting and Sculpture | March 31 at 5 p.m., Northen Auditorium
Adriana Greci Green, the Fralin Museum’s Curator of Indigenous Arts of the Americas at the University of Virginia, will deliver the Glynn Visiting Professorship Lecture, presented by the W&L Art Museum and the Dean of the College’s Office. Green will explore Western American art, a genre focused on activities of life in the historic West with trappers, cowboys and Native Americans as primary subjects. The lecture will bring attention to the Native regalia depicted in paintings and sculptures in W&L’s Stanley A. Kamen Collection of Western Art, highlighting the artistic traditions these works represent, while also discussing how contemporary Native artists honor ancestral regalia in their own creative practices. This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History. Pre-registration is required.

CramSesh Quiet Study at Watson Galleries | April 6-9, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
The Art Museum and Galleries invite students to elevate their study game in a quiet and art-filled environment. Grab a table and enjoy access to free coffee, snacks and supplies. Quiet study is open to W&L undergraduate and law students.

Sips n’ Sees at Watson Galleries | May 1, 4-6 p.m.
As part of Alumni Weekend, the Art Museum and Galleries invite the community to join for drinks, gallery strolls and a casual evening at Watson Galleries. Reconnect and experience the works in Moffat Takadiwa’s “Recoded Memories.”