June 1, 2025

This academic year we dove into the natural world through the exhibition Menagerie: Animals in Art from the Wellin Museum, quite literally engaging with artists and their animals. In the fall, Japanese-Canadian multimedia artist Alexa Hatanaka took Hamilton students fishing at one of the college’s reservoirs and led a gyotaku workshop demonstrating the Japanese tradition of fish printing capturing the impression of the fish using sumi ink pressed onto paper. This spring, American master printer Craig Zammeilleo, an amateur entomologist, delighted classes with specimens from his bug collection, the lion's share of which was recently donated to the Museum of Natural History in New York City. And British photographer and documentarian Zana Briski brought samples of her photograms made from the light impressions of wild animals from bugs to bears, and even brought along a live baby deer mouse she was fostering aptly named “Hamilton.” 

Each artist acted as a connector—to students, faculty, the community, and the public—but also to ideas, activities, and the natural world. Living artists don’t just ground us in the present but are a bridge to the past and future. Artists connect us with our histories, with each other, and offer a snapshot of a moment in time. It is an impression that is embedded with truths, thoughts, emotions, and imaginings, less document than trace. The trace of these visiting artists will endure through the memory of the hundreds of Hamilton College community members who engaged with them during their time on the Hill and through their artwork which resides in the Wellin Museum’s collection.

In addition to hosting several artists at Hamilton this year, we also visited artists on their home turf: checking in with our 2021 exhibiting artist Michael Rakowitz in Chicago, past featured artists Rhona Bitner, Julia Jacquette, and Yashua Klos in New York City, Jeffrey Gibson at the Venice Biennale and MASS MoCA, and spending time in the studio with our fall 2025 exhibiting artist Jamea Richmond-Edwards in the vibrant creative community of Detroit. Her upcoming show Another World and Yet the Same will feature a suite of new paintings that we had the opportunity to see and discuss as they developed. One of the professional highlights of the year for me was traveling to Marrakech for the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair where I met up with curators, artists, and gallerists from North America, Europe, and Africa.

As the academic year comes to a close, time spent with artists on the Hill and in their studios stands out as the highlight. Those artists who came to Hamilton met with classes from wide-ranging disciples such as Biology, Environmental Science, Religious Studies, and Art—all in the same visit. I often reflect on the Wellin Museum’s mission statement which begins “Through the lens of art...” It is indeed a lens: to better understand the world, to value creativity and culture, to connect with diverse areas of study, and to one another. Artists make those connections in their practice, their research, and through their innate sense of curiosity.