Past Exhibitions
Artistic Constructions of America, 1790–1940
Nurturing Nationhood
Featuring works from the 18th through the 20th centuries, this exhibition explores how art has played a role in defining, nurturing, and maintaining nationhood across what we now know as the United States.
I Remember Who I Am When I'm With You
I Remember Who I Am When I'm with You examines a range of photographs and prints that depict many types of relationships to explore the idea of interpersonal witnessing as a worthwhile action, one that shapes the course of our lives and allows us to impact others in return.
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.
History, Myth, and Propaganda
Revolution Reconsidered
Revolution Reconsidered: History, Myth, and Propaganda explores how visual representations of the American Revolution became, and remain, potent carriers of national history and identity. Beginning with Dartmouth's role in the Revolutionary era, the exhibition revisits well-known images of the American Revolution and traces the reappearance and repurposing of Revolutionary imagery to the present day. It asks how each generation reshapes our understanding of US art and history.
Art Histories/Art Futures
Art Histories/Art Futures is an introduction to the Hood Museum's suite of exhibitions marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. This exhibition brings together artworks in different media by American artists that range from the second half of the 20th century to today. Here, we examine the ways these artists use visual culture to contextualize significant societal narratives through the lens of varied personal experiences. We hope this exhibition, as well as our broader slate of 2026 shows, encourages visitors to contemplate our national histories through artworks that look to the past, at the present, and to our possible futures.
Slavery and Its Afterlives
Inhabiting Historical Time
Inhabiting Historical Time: Slavery and Its Afterlives explores slavery's impact and its enduring legacies via histories of oppression, resistance, subversion, and resilience. Objects related to these themes range from a 19th century ceramic by David Drake, an enslaved man, to Civil Rights era photography, and contemporary artists' exploration of enslavement and resistance.
Distinctions Between Artists and Their Subjects
Window and MirrorWindow and Mirror: Distinctions Between Artists and Their Subjects features pairs of artworks from 19th- and 20th-century artists that compare self-portraits to the artists' portraits of other subjects. Through these juxtapositions, the exhibition invites us to engage with how artists explore their identity and their relationship to their creations.
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.