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You Just Got to Laugh

January 10 – March 1, 2026

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  • A photograph of a museum gallery with paintings on dark blue walls and objects in a case.

    You Just Got to Laugh installed in the Hood Museum's Gutman gallery. Photo by Rob Strong.

  • A photo of a museum gallery with paintings hung on dark blue walls.

    You Just Got to Laugh installed in the Hood Museum's Gutman gallery. Photo by Rob Strong.

  • A photo of objects in a case in a museum gallery.

    You Just Got to Laugh installed in the Hood Museum's Gutman gallery. Photo by Rob Strong.

Series

A Space for Dialogue 128

About

Why do we find things funny? Is it because we are uncomfortable or delighted or simply amused? You Just Got to Laugh focuses on how comedy shows up in art and how the viewer engages with it. Humor presents itself here in many forms—word games, staged scenes, or dress-up—and all of them introduce a break between our expectations and reality. In the end, we laugh, even if we feel we shouldn't. This Space for Dialogue wants you to spend a few minutes laughing today, because even a little more of that is worth it.

A Space for Dialogue is a student-curated exhibition program that began in 2001. Hood Museum of Art interns create an installation drawn from the museum's permanent collection by engaging with every aspect of curation, from doing research and selecting objects, to choosing frames and a wall color, to planning a layout and writing labels and a brochure, to giving a public talk. There have been over 100 A Space for Dialogue exhibitions on a wide variety of themes.  

A Space for Dialogue: Fresh Perspectives on the Permanent Collection from Dartmouth Students, founded with support from the Class of 1948, is made possible with generous endowments from the Class of 1967, Bonnie and Richard Reiss Jr. '66, and Pamela J. Joyner '79.

Exhibition Curator

Sara N. Shelton '26

Exhibition subject: A Space for Dialogue