Maragaret Nagawa is the curator of Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art from the Chazen Collection and a Ph.D. candidate at Emory specializing in contemporary African art. Her research focuses on sculpture and language, showing that artists center the human body in forging alternative definitions to the narrow categorizations of art, craft, and literature envisioned by colonial administrators. […]
Join us in the galleries during designated Sensory-Friendly Hours for a more relaxed and comfortable visit. During these times, we adjust the environment by dimming gallery lighting and turning off audio on gallery tablets when no tours are scheduled. While all visitors are welcome, these sessions are especially appropriate for individuals with sensory sensitivities, for neurodivergent visitors, disabled visitors, or anyone […]
Discover the Palmer’s world-class collections and exhibitions with a friendly and knowledgeable museum guide. Each tour explores a theme, lasts about one hour, and includes close-looking through discussion and experiential learning opportunities. Guided tours start in the Dr. Keiko Miwa Ross Lobby. Join us for these free drop-in tours. Sign language interpretation for drop-in tours is offered upon request. Interpretation […]
Use clay to build art intended for movement, sound, or adornment. Create textured circles to become a windchime, necklace, magnet or something else of your choice and enjoy the relaxing effect of shaping clay. Hosted by Erin E. Carter, EdD, ATR-BC, Assistant Teaching Professor of Creative Arts Therapies, and Erin Bolger Welsh, Art Educator, these sessions offer […]
Enjoy an interdisciplinary gallery conversation about special exhibition Who Wears the Pants?! Fashion History One Leg at a Time with Charlene Gross, Associate Professor of Costume Design and Director of the Fashion Archive.
Enjoy an interdisciplinary gallery conversation about special exhibition Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art from the Chazen Collection with doctoral students in comparative literature Nana Kwame Brobbey, Olanireti Oluwatosin Falade, and Ogochukwu Cornelius Ukwueze.
Enjoy screenings of a selection of animated works submitted to the 2026 Happy Valley Animation Fest. HVAF seeks to showcase animated works in a range of categories. For more information, check the festival’s website: https://happyvalleyanimationfestival.org/
Join ceramic artist and Penn State alum Sharif Bey (Ph.D., Art Education) for this professional development opportunity. Bey will introduce art teachers to his own work which includes large scale sculptural forms that reference the human body, adornment, and diasporic traditions. He will also lead a hands-on ceramic lesson featuring the “exquisite corpse” framework as a collaborative art form that reframes […]
Sharif Bey is a Syracuse-based artist and educator. His ceramic and mixed-media work explores the visual traditions of African and Oceanic art and African American culture. Inspired by modernism and functional pottery, Bey’s works investigate symbolic and formal properties of archetypal motifs, while questioning how the meaning of icons and function transform across cultures and time. Bey studied sculpture […]
As part of the series of public workshops, Solos in Solidarity: Performing an Ethics of Care, April 7-10, 2026, supported by a Rock Ethics Institute grant, this gallery workshop engages with the Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art from the Chazen Collection exhibition at the Palmer Museum of Art. The collage poems created in response to […]
Exhibition, Friday, April 10, free, drop-in, noon to 2 p.m.Join us this spring for a special pop-up exhibition shaped by the shared perspectives of our Ambassadors and Palmer Student Ambassadors (PSAs). It celebrates curiosity and the many ways we see and understand art together. On Thursday, April 9, from 3:30–5 p.m., we’ll gather for a talk where Ambassadors and PSAs will […]
Discover the Palmer’s world-class collections and exhibitions with a friendly and knowledgeable museum guide. Each tour explores a theme, lasts about one hour, and includes close-looking through discussion and experiential learning opportunities. Guided tours start in the Dr. Keiko Miwa Ross Lobby. Join us for these free drop-in tours. Sign language interpretation for drop-in tours is offered upon request. Interpretation services must […]
Don’t just look at art, hear it! Enjoy contemporary ensemble performances by students in the School of Music and experience works of art in a new light through ekphrastic poetry readings by Penn State students. Repurpose artwork labels to create your own Dada poems and enjoy light refreshments.
Join educators from the Arboretum and the Palmer Museum of Art for the spring 2026 edition of the Garden and Gallery Book Club! We will be discussing A Bigger Picture: My Fight to Bring a New African Voice to the Climate Crisis by Vanessa Nakate, which explores themes that resonate with the Palmer’s special exhibition Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art from the Chazen Collection, open on February 7. The special exhibition investigates the ways artists use the body as […]
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