The GVSU Art Museum curates innovative, engaging, and relevant exhibitions available for loan to other institutions.  If you are interested in any of the available traveling exhibitions, please review the listings below and reach out to obtain additional information and availability.  Each exhibition requires the borrowing institution to follow museum practices and cover approved transportation, insurance, and a minimal loan fee.

Questions about an exhibition? Contact Curator of Exhibitions and Collections, Joel Zwart: [email protected].

Widely regarded as one of the most influential songwriters of all time, Bob Dylan was still relatively unknown in the summer of 1964 when twenty-one-year-old photographer Douglas R. Gilbert photographed him. On assignment for Look magazine, Gilbert spent time with Dylan at his home in Woodstock, New York, in Greenwich Village, and at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island. The photographs, which were never published because the editors declared Dylan “too scruffy for a family magazine,” show the up-and-coming folk singer in casual settings with friends at a pivotal point in his career.

Gilbert’s photographs document an intimate moment in Dylan’s life and a time when his music and career undertook a radical transformation. Drawn from Grand Valley State University’s (GVSU) collection, this exhibition includes a selection of Gilbert’s photographs and proof sheets from that assignment, part of his entire photographic collection that he donated to GVSU in 2018.

Number of Works: 27 photographs and 4 proof sheets (matted and framed - 16" x 20" to 20" x 24")

Panels and Labels: 2 text panels (framed - 24" x 30") and 29 didactic labels

Running Feet: 50 linear feet

Support Materials: Educators Learning Guide, Online Interview with artist Douglas Gilbert,  Online Exhibition Checklist

Fee: $1000 for 12-week period

Fluid or firm, evolving or traditional, apathetic or passionate; gender is expressed by artists in many ways, echoing concepts that vary across cultures and time. Traditionally, the term gender refers to the social and cultural behaviors associated with being a man, woman, or other gender identity. And for as long as artists have visualized the human body, they have contemplated representations of gender, provoking conversations through creative possibilities of the traditional male-female binary and beyond.

Drawn from the Grand Valley State University collection, Beyond the Binary: Artists Illustrate the Complexities of Gender brings together a variety of works that reflect diverse understandings of gender. The pieces prompt questions about the physical representation of the body concerning gender, as well as how gender is deeply tied to clothing, hairstyle, posture, and adornment. This exhibition also coincides with recent growth in artistic expression surrounding gender and a rising acceptance of increasingly fluid notions of gender. Most importantly, it raises questions about how we see ourselves and others in a culture that desires to illuminate our complexity.

Number of Works: 26 works of art (matted and framed - 16" x 20" to 40" x 40")

Panels and Labels: 2 text panels (framed - 24" x 30") and 20 didactic labels

Running Feet: 50 linear feet

Support Materials: Educators Learning Guide, Online Exhibition Checklist

Fee: $1000 for 12-week period