Mission and Practice at the Augustana Center for Visual Culture

Mission

The Augustana Center for Visual Culture supports the mission, purpose, and goals of Augustana College by placing student learning and experience at its heart. It utilizes the visual arts as a catalyst to explore contemporary issues and to foster interdisciplinary inquiry. We are a space for a multiplicity of voices and perspectives, and a site of dynamic community engagement.

Values

The Augustana Center for Visual Culture values a liberal arts spirit of inquiry, intellectual rigor, critical dialogue, a multiplicity of perspectives, and academic freedom.

Governance

The museum director reports directly to the provost of the college and works with the Center for Visual Culture Advisory Board to ensure compliance with these and other college policies.

Exhibitions

As part of its stewardship of the art collection of the college, the Center for Visual Culture will maintain a schedule of exhibitions of works either held by or loaned to the college, the display of which offers opportunities to engage the campus and surrounding communities with the scholarly, cultural and creative resources of Augustana faculty, students, staff and alumni. Exhibition themes will be chosen in consultation with the Museum Advisory Board, in part based on the likelihood of engaging academic departments both in and outside of the Division of Fine and Performing Arts.

In general, the Centennial Hall Upper and Lower Galleries will provide the venue for no fewer than three exhibitions per academic year. The Permanent Collection Art Gallery will exhibit works for the period of an entire academic year, chosen for their ability to augment the Liberal Studies-First Year and related General Education programs of the college. Additional spaces on campus will be identified for small-scale exhibitions curated by various members of the Augustana community, in consultation with the museum director. The cabinet will have the authority to mediate questions related to the use of such spaces.