UNC Galleries
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Our Galleries support UNC’s student-centered mission.
The Galleries are a teaching program of the School of Art and Design. We embrace bold curation and showcase a range of contemporary art from across the nation. Our faculty and students collaborate, advise and co-curate as partners in realizing new artwork.
Our Visiting Artist program immerses students in the lives of creative professionals. Visitors share their work in public lectures and integrate into the curriculum through classroom visits, critiques and workshops.
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Our Gallery Spaces
Lydia and Robert Ruyle Gallery
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Previously the Campus Commons Gallery, the Ruyle Gallery is the largest gallery in the heart of campus and hosts diverse shows.
Location: Campus Commons, 1st floor (1051 22nd St)
Hours: Mon-Fri 10am-5pm | Sat 10am-2pm | By appointment
Mariani Gallery
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Mariani Gallery showcases a variety of media types and interdisciplinary work.
Location: Guggenheim Hall, Room 100 (1819 8th Ave)
Hours: Mon-Fri 11am-4pm | By appointment
Oak Room Gallery
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Oak Room Gallery is a charming and unique gallery space for exhibitions that enhance its history.
Location: Crabbe Hall, Room 201 (1801 8th Ave)
Hours: Mon-Fri 11am-4pm | By appointment
2025-26 Exhibitions & Events
Art Walk & Reception: Thursday, September 11, 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Roots and Routes: Artistic Works by UNC Alumni
& the Lydia and Robert Ruyle Gallery Naming Ceremony
August 25鈥揝eptember 16 | Lydia and Robert Ruyle Gallery
Roots and Routes聽celebrates the creative paths of UNC alumni, highlighting both personal style and shared creative roots in their work. Experience the wide range of expression from the School of Art and Design and see how our alumni influence art communities near and far. You also won鈥檛 want to miss this reception on September 11鈥擟ampus Commons Gallery becomes the Lydia and Robert Ruyle Gallery in honor of artist, activist and UNC alumna Lydia Ruyle.
Solo Show by Steve Snell
September 3鈥揙ctober 10 | Mariani Gallery
See some of the latest work by visiting artist and adventurer Steve Snell, whose work engages American history, mythology, and the image of the Western landscape.
Character Generator by Dylan Collins
September 8鈥揙ctober 16 | Oak Room Gallery
Dylan Collins began this series by 3D scanning small improvisational studies made from clay, metal, wood and found objects. You鈥檒l see how he brings disparate items into something cohesive, embracing the distortions and digital chatter that comes with these digital technologies. The exhibition shows you 3D printed artwork made from these pieces in materials like cast iron and urethane plastic. The effect is of broken narratives that embody ideas of mortality, humor and cryptic beauty.
Art Walk & Reception: Thursday, October 23, 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Soft Power
September 29鈥揘ovember 5 | Lydia and Robert Ruyle Gallery
Soft Power聽showcases artwork by many different women artists from 1890 to today. This exhibition explores acts of resistance and expressions of agency with art that shows domestic settings and uses arts and craft techniques. For many women artists, aligning with the domestic sphere has been both a way to question things and to find power. The quiet strength and careful details of these pieces invite you to notice subtle acts of protest and the fine lines between personal and political matters.
Gloop and Droop by Lucia Calderon Arrieta
October 20鈥揘ovember 20 | Mariani Gallery
From the artist:聽Welcome to the Gloop 鈥楴 Droop Dimension鈥攁 world where squishy weirdos co-evolve to survive together softly. Where they seek each other out through the tenderness of touch. Whose pock-marked skins鈥攏o matter how thickened or bruised鈥攔emain energetically permeable. Here, felted portals create connections to inner dimensions of warmth and well-being. Here, blobby creatures ooze around pulpy caves, wondering, 鈥淲ill I be safe out there?鈥 Here, we co-create spells of community care, connection and interdependence. We answer, 鈥淭his is how safety feels to me.鈥
Systemic by Erin Wohletz
October 22鈥揘ovember 21 | Oak Room Gallery
From the artist:聽This work considers the nature of broken systems and investigates the roles of enculturation, politics and faith as broken systems in America. As a nonbinary person, particularly in South Dakota, I often find myself existing in a broken offshoot or completely outside of conventional social structures. In this work I take on the role of gender archeologist, excavating and diagramming the queer history of gender.
Reception: Thursday, November 13, 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Annual Student Juried Exhibition
November 13鈥 December 4 | Lydia and Robert Ruyle Gallery
Check out works by UNC students selected by an external juror!
UNC Student Holiday Sale
December 3 & 4 | Mariani Gallery聽
A variety of artwork by UNC art and design students will be on sale during gallery hours! Come find the perfect handmade holiday gift and support our local artists.
Coding as Art: The Power of Collaboration
January 13-22 | Oak Room Gallery
UNC faculty member Anna Ursyn has collaborated with industry professionals, educators and students to emphasize storytelling, writing, coding and collaboration as ways to prepare students to be leading industry professionals.
Art Walk & Reception: Thursday, February 12, 4:30-6:30 p.m.
The Genteel Revolutionary by Ellamaria Foley-Ray
February 2鈥揗arch 4 | Lydia and Robert Ruyle Gallery
How do memories of a community ancestor create a legacy of an authentic vision for future generations, particularly those from BIPOC communities, to reach their highest potential through public education?聽The Genteel Revolutionary: Embracing Dr. Rachel Bassette Noel鈥檚 Legacy聽invites you to explore this question through narrative quilts. Hear the story of how the first African American woman to hold public office in 黑料社区 gained strength from her family, community, history and faith to help bring about the desegregation of Denver Public Schools.
Solo Show by Calista Lyon
January 20鈥揊ebruary 26 | Mariani Gallery
You鈥檒l see Calista Lyon鈥檚 work deconstruct historical and contemporary representations of landscape. She examines how images have been used to wield state, colonial, and imperial power to build nations.
grit and gristle by Rachel Linneman
February 2鈥揗arch 6 | Oak Room Gallery
Reflecting on her Appalachian upbringing, Rachel Linnemann uses found objects to highlight blue collar and emotional labor and familial struggles. She transforms these items with costume jewelry, gold, pearls and opulence to raise everyday objects to a new level. This gives you the opportunity to find visual joy in topics of generational trauma that are difficult to talk about. You鈥檒l see food as a symbol of community, poverty, family legacy and comfort and be invited to embrace both joy and hardship.
Art Walk & Reception: Thursday, March 5, 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Foundations Show
March 4-13 | Mariani Gallery
See artwork created by UNC students in visual arts Foundations classes!
Art Walk & Reception: Thursday, March 26, 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Fruiting Bodies by Kate Hooray Osmond
March 12鈥揂pril 15 | Lydia and Robert Ruyle Gallery
From the artist:聽I experience a world where definitions and foundations are increasingly dissolute鈥攁 world of complete energy. These works represent an acknowledgement of change, abundance, sorrow, creation and destruction. I am embracing everything to see the complete balance of existence and to learn peace in a climate when nothing lasts.
Greeley & Friends Pop-Up Print Show!
March 24鈥揂pril 2 | Mariani Gallery
See this unique pop-up printmaking show by local artists.
Oak Room Student Shows
March 24鈥揂pril 2聽| Oak Room Gallery
Individual student artists propose, create, curate and install their own exhibitions.
Art Walk & Reception: Thursday, April 9, 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Mariani & Oak Room Student Shows
April 7-16 | Mariani & Oak Room Galleries聽
Individual student artists propose, create, curate and install their own exhibitions.
Art Walk & Reception: Thursday, April 30, 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Graphic Design Senior Show
April 21鈥揗ay 1 | Lydia and Robert Ruyle Gallery
See the senior portfolio exhibition from UNC Graphic Design students.
Mariani & Oak Room Student Shows
April 21鈥揗ay 30 | Mariani & Oak Room Galleries聽
Individual student artists propose, create, curate and install their own exhibitions.
MA Graduate Thesis Exhibition
May 18鈥揓une 18 | Lydia and Robert Ruyle Gallery
See artwork from our first cohort of Master of Arts in Studio Art!
Past Exhibitions
Collections
Ruyle Collection
The Ruyle Collection consists of over 500 works of art including more than 350 goddess banners, nearly 60 large scale images of crop circles and other phenomena from a variety of world cultures on mixed media and handmade paper, as well as other prints and paintings. The art of Lydia Ruyle is above all a method of sociological inquiry ultimately about connections between humanity, nature and spirit. She created works of art that soulfully express divine aspects of life鈥損articularly as it connects to feminine strength. Lydia鈥檚 works, including her goddess iconography from around the globe and other representations of phenomena such as crop circles, were inspired by images revered throughout various cultures across time and place in human history. The collection serves as a learning laboratory for students in the Curatorial and Public History certificate program as well as for arts-based researchers in the MA and BA in Studio Art programs.
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Petteys Collection of Women Artists
The Petteys Collection of Women Artists consists of fifty works by nineteenth and twentieth century artists including Mary Cassatt, Käthe Kollwitz, Elizabeth Catlett, Louise Nevelson, and Claude Raguet Hirst among others. It is a stylistically diverse and wide ranging collection that encompasses drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, and photography.
Beginning in the 1970s, Chris Petteys established herself as an authority on women artists. With the support of her husband Robert she acquired art and conducted extensive research, publishing a Dictionary of Women Artists Before 1900 (1986). The Dictionary was notable as the first attempt at such a comprehensive project since Clara Erskine Clement’s 1904 volume Women in the Fine Arts, and for the fact that she researched and wrote the book from her home in Sterling, 黑料社区. Petteys also served as a founding member of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington D.C.
The Petteys Collection of Women Artists is held in Special Collections Michener Library, along with her papers with include her notes and materials for the Dictionary of Women Artists Before 1900.
—Dr. Kiki Gilderhus
How to Visit: Archives & Special Collections is located on the lower level of . Contact UNC Libraries to learn about Archives & Special Collections hours or to schedule an appointment.
Contact Us
Belle-Pilar Fleming
Director of UNC Galleries
- PVA@unco.edu
- (970) 351-2993
- Crabbe Hall