Guest curator Elizabeth S. Hawley considers the history of American art through the collection at Auburn University. Pairing paintings from the museum’s iconic Advancing American Art Collection with other contemporary collection objects, this exhibition encourages visitors to ask what being and belonging in American art might mean in the past, the present and the future.

Elizabeth “Betsy” S. Hawley, PhD, is an art historian, writer and curator specializing in art of the Americas and modern and contemporary art. Her research often focuses on 20th and 21st century Indigenous art, and other areas of expertise include feminist/women’s art, activist art, ecocritical art and art of the American West. Hawley’s work has been supported by the Lunder Institute, SECAC Levin Award, Wolfsonian-FIU, and Pittsburgh Foundation. She is an assistant professor of art history at the University of South Alabama.