Wriston Art Center Galleries

There is a new online catalog with information and images of the Lawrence University Ottilia Buerger '38 and Classics Department Coin Collections

The mission of the Wriston Art Galleries is to strengthen Lawrence University's liberal arts education and outreach by stimulating thought, inspiring creativity, providing insight, and inviting contemplation by students, faculty, staff, and the community through interaction with the original works of art and cultural objects that the galleries exhibit and collect.

The Wriston Art Galleries is made up of three exhibition spaces that change five times a year. The Galleries present exhibitions featuring the work of contemporary artists, selections from the permanent collection, traveling exhibitions, and the Annual Senior Art Show. The Galleries are an interdisciplinary space, striving to connect to all areas of campus: music, the hard and social sciences, the humanities, and the fine arts.

The Wriston Art Galleries Permanent Collection has been built primarily through donations from generous alumni and friends of Lawrence University. The collection contains more than 5,800 items - prints, drawings, paintings and sculpture, as well as coins, textiles, posters and ritual and vernacular objects - which span historical periods from antiquity to the present and come from all over the world.

Dedicated in 1989, the Wriston Art Center is named for Lawrence University's 8th president, Henry Merritt Wriston (1889-1978; president, 1925-1937). The building was designed by Jefferson Riley, '68, a Lawrence alumni and graduate of the Yale School of Architecture, and Centerbrook Architects. In addition to the galleries and the Quirk Print Study Room, the Wriston Art Center houses the Art & Art History Department.