Lawrence, KS, March 8, 2011 – The Spencer Museum of Art will become an experimental performance laboratory for a day as performance artist Ernesto Pujol conceptualizes the representation of gaze—the artist as the embodiment of our human gaze. Pujol stages meditative performances that involve subtle gesture, such as walking, pausing, looking, tracing, and drawing.

Lawrence, KS, July 31, 2012 – From 1972 to 1976, when her husband, Harry Hughes, was a Public Affairs Officer for the American Embassy in Haiti, Mary Lou Vansant Hughes developed a deep admiration for the nation’s art. During their time there, the couple met and befriended many of the artists, eventually establishing a collection of nearly 100 Haitian works. Now, 40 years after they first arrived in Port-au-Prince, the Hughes, both of whom are University of Kansas alumni, have given their collection to KU’s Spencer Museum of Art.

Lawrence, KS, June 25, 2012 – A new exhibition on view through July 8 on the Spencer Museum of Art’s fourth floor, features highlights from a private collection of Turkish Kilims, an amazing group of weavings that encapsulate Turkish history, culture, and tradition into astonishing designs for rugs. These Kilims all came from small villages throughout Anatolia and the Kurdish regions of Turkey, and they range in date from late 19th century through the 1960s.