Creatures of Imagination: The Nature Cabinet

October 21 – November 18, 2021

The Dorrance H. Hamilton Gallery and Salve Regina University’s Department of Art and Art History are pleased to announce the opening of Creatures of Imagination: The Nature Cabinet, an exhibition of artwork created by our Salve community and accompanied by select specimens from the Nature Cabinet, to marks the public launch of the digital humanities project salve.edu/naturecabinet.

The exhibition Creatures of Imagination: The Nature Cabinet transforms the Hamilton Gallery into an enlivened cabinet of curiosities.  It offers visitors a glimpse into the Department of Art and Art History’s Nature Cabinet, a public collection of taxidermy, skulls, fossils, coral, books, and natural forms permanently housed in the Antone Academic Center’s Room 101.  For this exhibition a diverse range of creative work and natural forms from the collection are showcased together for the first time.  Through these juxtapositions, Creatures of Imagination celebrates the continued use and promise of this invaluable and ever-evolving resource.  This exhibition highlights the scope of the Nature Cabinet’s impact on learning and growth at Salve Regina.  It features a full spectrum of media from drawing, painting and graphic design to photography, ceramics, and web design.

This show was curated by Professors Susannah Strong, Anthony F. Mangieri and Ernest Jolicoeur of Salve Regina University’s Department of Art and Art History.  With the generous support of an Antone Academic Excellence Award for Special Projects in 2017, a team of faculty and student collaborators developed the Nature Cabinet.  For additional information about this resource please visit salve.edu/naturecabinet.

Creatures of Imagination: The Nature Cabinet, runs from October 21 through November 18, 2021.  We are pleased to welcome the Salve community and the public to experience this exhibition in person at Hamilton Gallery.

The Dorrance H. Hamilton Gallery is located in the Antone Academic Center on the campus of Salve Regina University.  It is handicap accessible with parking along Lawrence and Leroy Avenues.  Its exhibits are open Tuesdays through Thursdays 11:00 to 6:00 pm and Wednesdays and Fridays 11:00 to 5:00 pm.  The gallery is closed on weekends and Mondays.  We invite you to visit us.