The public is invited to the ongoing series of events: from Machu Picchu to Abby Williams Hill

TACOMA, Wash. – Celebrations for the 75th anniversary of Kittredge Hall—the home of public art shows, student learning, and community events—continue at the University of Puget Sound in 2017.

The commemoration of the 1942 groundbreaking of the hall that now houses Kittredge Gallery began last September with a Bill Colby retrospective and a Past and Present Faculty Exhibition. From mid-January on, there are more free public events, including a talk by an alumna art history professor who will share her research on Machu Picchu and exhibits of art by Puget Sound alumni and pioneering artist Abby Williams Hill. Details of the 2017 events presented by the Department of Art and Art History are below.

Carolyn Dean ’80: “Masonry and Meaning at Machu Picchu and Beyond.”
Saturday, Jan. 28, 2–3 p.m.
Rasmussen Rotunda, Wheelock Student Center
Free and open to the public

carolyn-dean-machu-picchu-talk-jan-17-2.jpg
Carolyn Dean

Carolyn Dean ’80, professor, history of art and visual culture at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and author of A Culture of Stone: Inka Perspectives on Rock, will give the public keynote lecture Art History Alumni Colloquium (Jan. 27–28). Dean has researched the Inca culture, before and after Spanish colonization, and has studied Inca stonework in the Andes. When Dean first began visiting Inca archaeological sites, she became captivated by the ancient stonemasonry created in the Andes' breathtaking heights. She began to question academic beliefs that the Incas were mere architectural engineers, lacking artistry. Her further research of their masterful work, grafting shaped blocks on to existing rock outcrops, led her to sites throughout the Inca Empire, from Ecuador to Chile, and deep into Andean folklore Inca worldview. Dean’s talk is sponsored by the Catharine Gould Chism Fund for the Humanities and the Arts and the Department of Art and Art History.

Alumni Exhibition and Art History Colloquium
Tuesday, Jan. 17–Saturday, Feb. 18, 2017
Kittredge Gallery
Free and open to the public. See below for opening hours.

Works by alumni of the Department of Art and Art History will be exhibited at Kittredge Gallery for public viewing. For alumni and past and present faculty members, the Art History Colloquium will run Friday, Jan. 27, and Saturday, Jan. 28. Public reception Friday, Jan. 27, 5-7 p.m. 

Abby Williams Hill Exhibit
Monday, Feb. 27–Saturday, April 15, 2017
Kittredge Gallery
Free and open to the public. See below for opening hours.

abby-w-hill-rainiersmall.jpg

Art students will curate paintings from the University of Puget Sound collection of Northwest pioneer and artist Abby Williams Hill for the public exhibition. Hill’s work provides a vision of many of the early American West's iconic sights and a picture of life between the Civil War and World War II. An opening reception will be held at the gallery on Wednesday, March 22, 5–7 p.m.

Gallery Location: the University of Puget Sound, N. 15th Street at N. Lawrence Street, Tacoma, Wash.
Directions and Map: pugetsound.edu/directions
Regular Hours: Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Saturday, noon–5 p.m. 

Website: pugetsound.edu/kittredge
Facebook: facebook.com/KittredgeGallery
Newsletter: Signup here

For accessibility information, please contact accessibility@pugetsound.edu or 253.879.3236, or visit pugetsound.edu/accessibility

Press Photos are available upon request.
Photos on page: From top right: Machu Picchu at sunrise, by Allard Schmidt (public domain); Carolyn Dean; Mount Rainier, by Abby Williams Hill

Tweet this: Art in the stones of #MachuPicchu, talk by Carolyn Dean @ucsc + #AbbyWilliamsHill art show @univpugetsound Jan 28+

Follow us on Twitter! twitter.com/univpugetsound