Making Meaning: A Collage Symposium–Related Events

Several exhibitions and a book fair will be held at Vassar in conjunction with Making Meaning: A Collage Symposium, a three-day symposium at the Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts. The following events are free and open to the public.

The Making Meaning Book Fair

The Bridge for Laboratory Science

Friday, June 24, 2026, 11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.

The Making Meaning Book Fair brings together artists and publishers whose work engages collage and innovative approaches to publishing. An extension of the symposium’s conversations, the Book Fair offers a space to explore how books and printed matter document, circulate, and expand the experience of collage. The fair will feature work from artists and publications such as Allison Anne, Todd Bartel, Katie Blake, Cut Me Up magazine, and more. For more info, visit the Making Meaning Book Fair page.

Exhibitions at Vassar

These exhibitions feature regional and national artists exploring collage through curatorial approaches, historical inquiry, and contemporary artistic practice.

Shapeshifters: Collage to Form

Palmer Gallery

June 2–August 8, 2026

Reception: Thursday, July 24, 5:00–7:00 p.m.

Gallery Hours: Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Shapeshifters: Collage to Form is an exhibition exploring the intersection of both image and object in contemporary collage, curated by Andrea Burgay and Monica Church. Exhibiting artists include Yura Adams, Craig Auge, Edgard Barbosa, Karlos Cárcamo, Jordanna Kalman, Allison Owen, ransome, and Sylvan Robinson.

The Making Meaning Participants Exhibition

Old Bookstore Gallery

July 10–July 24, 2026

Reception: Thursday, July 23, 6:00–8:00 p.m.

Gallery Hours: Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m.–7:00 p.m.

Curated by collage artist Rosanne Walsh, Meaning Matters is a celebration of discernment. The keen perception and intellectual skill of sifting through and combining worldly debris to make connections to the collective unconscious through artistry goes far beyond cutting and pasting. This exhibit displays the personal or universal meaning that inspires or emerges from the work of all collage artists attending the Making Meaning Collage Symposium.

Works from the Collection

The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

May 11–September 14, 2026

Gallery Hours: Tuesday–Sunday, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m, and Thursday nights, 5:00–7:00 p.m.

The Loeb will present an installation of works on paper from both the permanent collection and Vassar’s Special Collections, paying homage to collage as a key technique of modernist art. The installation will also include the work of curator and art historian Margaret Miller ’34, who organized a major exhibition of collage at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1948.

Selections from the Postcard Collective, 2019–2026

Vassar Art Library

July 9–October 18, 2026

Gallery Hours: Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

The Postcard Collective is a mail-art exhibition that honors an exchange that faces extinction due to the high cost of postage and increasing restrictions on what can be mailed and how. Curator Monica Church has been one of many crossover collage artists who also create works to be sent and received via mail. The exhibition presents a selection of postcards from exchanges, including works by Allan Bealy, Laura Blakeslee, Cheryl Chudyk, Craig Davidson, Emily Denlinger, Camden Hardy, Amelia Morris, Wolfgang Lexington, Stephen Tomasko, Billy Renkl, Leah Swenson, and more.

Sponsored by Making Meaning.

All events are free and open to the public.