Showcasing 2,000 years of art, the exhibition sparked cross-disciplinary learning and hands-on student engagement.
Dr. Hamilton presents during Eras’ opening event.
Dr. van Loenen speaks during the 2,000 Years in 10 Minutes event.
Sweet Briar College: Where Bold Women Thrive, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, is more than just a campus—it’s a launchpad for fearless leaders, innovators, and changemakers.
Sweet Briar’s Eras exhibition sparks cross-disciplinary learning, engaging students across 11 courses through hands-on art experiences.
SWEET BRIAR, VA, UNITED STATES, April 27, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Eras: People Watching 400 BCE to 2022 CE opened in the Anne Gary Pannell Fine Arts Center in October, but the College community benefited from the exhibition throughout the year, especially through academics.
Serving as a background to 10 events from October to March and welcoming hundreds of students from 11 courses, the exhibition was more than an assortment of pieces from Sweet Briar’s permanent art collection. Eras sparked conversation, served as inspiration for papers and projects, and showcased some of the truly incredible pieces the campus community has access to.
“It’s a tiny percent of colleges that have a collection like this that students can get their hands on, and our collection is truly, especially per capita, mind-blowingly impressive and complete,” said Dr. Tracy Hamilton, associate professor of visual arts, who often draws upon the art collection and College archives for her courses. “We have our hands on these objects every day in class, and it’s a transformative experience for students in terms of building confidence through interacting with objects. It also just makes the classes so much more real at that point; you’re not just writing a research paper on some abstract, faraway thing, it’s something that you’re getting to look at really closely and carefully, and then do the research to contextualize it and bring in other objects that support it. I don’t think I can teach without a collection anymore.”
The exhibition was curated by the Director of Galleries & Museum, Dr. Clare van Loenen, with support from student interns and gallery assistants, and launched at the opening event, 2,000 Years in 10 Minutes.
“Seeing an exhibition speak to students across so many disciplines has opened up the meaning of these artworks as individual pieces, as a collection, and as a feature of campus life. On opening night, 10 professors took on the challenge of capturing a work in just one minute. In the ensuing timed performance, the crowded room witnessed in miniature what happens every day in classrooms across campus. Still, the academic value of each item in the teaching collection,” Dr. van Loenen said. “The collection stays alive by connecting us to the newest and oldest ideas in our cultural lives, and everything in between.”
Showcasing how people have been portrayed across time, Eras featured work in all manner of art, from medieval martyred saints to women rebelling against restrictive dress codes. It spans more than 2,000 years and mixes significant artists with household names, such as Rembrandt van Rijn, William Blake, Mary Cassatt, and Carrie Mae Weems. The show also included two new sketches by Iranian American artist Mahsa R Fard, as well as 29 pieces that will be featured in the College’s forthcoming catalog, SeeiArtArt, all thanks to the Friends of Art.
Throughout its time on display, the exhibition drew more than 1,000 visitors and is considered one of the College’s “blockbuster” shows for the breadth and caliber of its 65 featured pieces. Students even had the opportunity to contribute to the show itself, creating photogrammetry 3-D printouts from the jointly held Senior Seminars in Art History and Archaeology that replicate physical pieces in the collection and opened the timeline, as well as award-winning creative writing texts.
In Dr. Hamilton’s ARTH 350: Worldly Art – Global Renaissance course, students used pieces on display and in storage to create their own exhibitions on a theme and compiled new label copy for the items in the exhibition.
“They all loved being able to have the collection be part of their lives. I think when they leave Sweet Briar, the collection will be part of what they remember,” said Dr. Hamilton. “It’s not just their own major or their own friends or the buildings and landscape here, but that the Sweet Briar collection is a really important part of their experience.”
The exhibition didn’t just serve those in art history, but students from across all disciplines. As part of the College’s Women’s Leadership Core Curriculum, three sections of CORE 120: Mindful Writer used the exhibit to replicate the “Critics” section of The New Yorker, allowing the College’s unique resources to benefit students from all areas of academic life.
“Art has meaning. And we really get to see this in the Eras show. The goal of the show, simply put: people watching. Watching people throughout time and history as they go about their lives, through work, play, and trials and tribulations. Through medieval times all the way until modern days, the days we are currently living in,” Tess Peters ’29 wrote in her critique. “This show allows us to see into the past, as a lot of artwork does. Art is our window into the past, like a time machine. People take personal experiences, paint them on a canvas or draw them on paper, and then put them on display. Suddenly, the whole world now knows what that person’s life may have been like, even through that single snapshot captured with paint and pencils.”
Courses that used and benefited from the Eras exhibition included:
ARTH 116: Art History II – Global Perspectives 1500 to Present (Dr. Hamilton)
ARTH 328: Avant-Gardes (Dr. Bivens)
ARTH 350: Worldly Art – Global Renaissance (Dr. Hamilton)
CORE 120: Mindful Writer (Dr. Becky Bivens, Dr. Hamilton, Dr. Susannah Nevison)
DART 105: Introduction to Arts Management (Dr. van Loenen)
PHIL 236: Philosophy and the Arts (Dr. Bivens)
SART 206: Classical Drawing (Professor Claire Stankus)
SART 155: Etching and Advanced Printmaking (Professor Laura Pharis)
SART 452: Studio Art Senior Seminar (Professor Shawn O’Connor)
At Sweet Briar, learning is immersive, hands-on, and deeply connected across disciplines. Experiences like the Eras exhibition allow students to engage directly with world-class collections, collaborate with faculty, and apply their knowledge in meaningful ways. From the arts and humanities to leadership and writing, Sweet Briar prepares women to think critically and lead boldly. If you’re ready for a college experience that brings learning to life, visit sbc.edu/admissions or contact admissions@sbc.edu to begin your journey.
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