Grace Hauenstein Library Art Gallery and Study Space

 

This gallery is an important component of Aquinas College's visual arts programs.  While the College has art on display across the campus, this gallery is a dedicated space to highlight works from the art collection.  Through focused and rotating exhibitions, the gallery provides visual arts experiences that can impact the lives of students, faculty, staff, and the community.   

The renovation was led by the Arts Advisory Committee and other departments. Funds from the Woodhouse family have allowed Aquinas to convert the study area into one that can also accommodate art exhibitions. 

Location: 
First Floor, Grace Hauenstein Library
159 Woodward Ln SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49506
(see on map)

Gallery Hours: 

You can view the gallery whenever the Grace Hauenstein Library is open. Library hours vary throughout the year due to holiday and summer breaks.

To see current library hours, visit the Grace Hauenstein Library Calendar.

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Current Exhibition

Margaret Vega: Stone Angels 

Grace Hauenstein Library Art Gallery and study space hosted an exhibition reception featuring the artist Margaret Vega on Jan.16 for the new collection on display.

Vega, an independent artist and former teacher at Kendall college, has a special connection to Aquinas. Her father, who recently passed away, was a student at AQ after fighting in World War 2. At the reception she noted how “things must come full circle.” Vega, traditionally trained in painting, also ventures into mixed media, as her work is composed of a range of mediums such as oils, gold leaf, chalk and other more experimental pieces with strings, mosaics and collections of rocks. 

At the reception, she discussed the work on display, which includes pieces from a range of series, some of which are landscapes, others more figure based. A lot of the work is “inspired by place,” as Vega said, she believes that “travel strips back layers and allows you to be actively aware of where you are.” The pieces shown are inspired by places across the globe, including New Zealand, Mexico, Australia, Italy and Argentina. 

She pairs these places and things together with different ideas and contexts to make her pieces more than a pretty picture, but complicated nuanced discussions that are skilfully illustrated.

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Past Exhibitions

Holly Roberts: Photography Reimagined

The Grace Hauenstein Library Gallery and Study Space at Aquinas College welcomed a new exhibition – Holly Roberts: Photography Reimagined. Holly Roberts is a prolific artist blending paint and photography into surreal works of art that captivate the creativity and curiosity of viewers around the world. 

The exhibit was scheduled to run from February 5, 2024 to December 2024.

The exhibition’s story began with a discovery at Brookby while faculty were cataloging its art collection for the College’s digital archive. During the process, they came across the largest piece in the exhibition, an untitled work featuring a human figure with the head of a canine. When they reached out to Roberts and confirmed the artwork was indeed hers, she offered to donate 11 more works to the College. All 12 will be featured in the exhibition.

>> Read more about the exhibit

Françoise Gilot: An Artistic Journey

This exhibit ended on December 15, 2023. If you missed the exhibit in person, you can see the curated collection here.

The inaugural exhibition in the Grace Hauenstein Library Art Gallery and Study Space featured ten works by the French-born artist. Gilot has worked as an artist for eight decades and currently lives in New York at the age of one hundred and one. She is often spoken of in relation to Pablo Picasso with whom she was in a relationship for a decade and had two children, but her own artistic accomplishments stand for themselves. She has exhibited her works internationally, including in West Michigan. 

On March 23, 2023, Gilot's daughter Aurélia Engel visited Aquinas' campus to give a lecture about her mother's work. One hundred students, staff, faculty, and community members were in attendance. The lecture and gallery opening were supported by the Women's Studies Program, Anthony Foster, M.D. '73 and Linda Nemec Foster, MFA '72.

A majority of the collection was acquired through a gift from Sam and Janene Cummings.