You Just Got to Laugh
Sara Shelton '26, Class of 1954 Intern
Published by the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, 2026, 4 pages
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.