2022-2023

September 8 - October 11, 2022

Co-curated by Lalaine Bangilan Little, Ph.D. and Holly Wilson

Autumn is a time to celebrate homecomings, and for Native American artist Holly Wilson, exhibiting her artwork in the ancestral homelands of the Delaware-Lenape has been a meaningful journey. The Pauly Friedman Art Gallery will be hosting “On Turtle’s Back: Holly Wilson,” an exhibition of photography, installation pieces and assemblages of cast wax, sculpted metals, and cut logs. This exhibition is free and open to the public and runs through Tuesday, October 11.

The public is invited to a free presentation by Holly Wilson about her work on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Monday, October 10, from 5:30pm-7:00pm. Kas Williams, Associate Vice President for Mission Integration and Institutional Diversity, will give the University Welcome. RSVP to Lalaine Bangilan Little at (570) 674-6250 or llittle@misericordia.edu. “On Turtle’s Back” part of a series celebrating Native American Heritage held in collaboration with Misericordia’s Environmental Studies Program, Directed by  Linda Auker, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biology at Misericordia University.

The title, “On Turtle’s Back,” is a reference to a traditional creation myth in which the Delaware People survived flooding rains by climbing on the back of a turtle. Wilson’s artwork embodies stories of her incorporates narratives stemming from her heritage as Delaware and Cherokee Native American.

Visit the "On Turtle's Back" Exhibition Page

The Pauly Friedman Art Gallery at Misericordia University will exhibit Work, Fight, Give: American Relief Posters of WWII from October 21 to December 16, 2022. This wide-ranging collection of original relief posters and memorabilia puts relief efforts at the forefront through an array of visually exciting poster art, poster stamps (known as “Cinderellas”), photographs, banners, and programs issued by the various relief agencies and by the National War Fund—an agency created by Franklin Roosevelt in early 1942 to consolidate the hundreds of relief agencies that sprang up to aid those countries and peoples devastated by war.

Many of America’s top artists and illustrators designed the relief posters, and they often employed historical, mythological, and cultural symbols representing various countries and cultures. From the regional sensibilities of Grant Wood, to the illustrative style of Arthur Szyk, to the painterly styles of James Montgomery Flagg and Martha Sawyers, the posters branded and differentiated various agencies all competing under the National War Fund name. In addition to the posters themselves, this exhibition offers context of the posters in action, through images of the artists, along with agency leaders, movie stars, well-known personalities, or simply volunteers proudly showing off their posters. Work, Fight, Give serves as a powerful reminder of the continuing need for philanthropy in a tumultuous world, and how the greatest generation met that challenge.

This exhibition was curated by Hal Wert, professor of history at Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, MO, and organized by ExhibitsUSA, a program of Mid-America Arts Alliance.