Forward Progress: Faculty + Staff Exhibition

Arcadia Exhibitions is pleased to present “Forward Progress: Faculty + Staff Exhibition,” on view from February 12 through April 20, 2025 in the Spruance Gallery, Spruance Art Center. The exhibition features works from 17 full and part-time instructors and staff working within the Arcadia Art + Design Department. 

This show represents a return to the format of a themed group exhibition, last undertaken in 2016 with “Revolutions of Making.” For this iteration, the participants were asked to present or create works that consider the term “Forward Progress,” a theme predominant within the rhetoric of the 2024 presidential election. Faculty and staff were given latitude to consider the theme either as it relates to their own creative practice or as a starting point to comment on the current social or political landscape.

According to Director Matthew Borgen, “The notion of asking the members of the Department of Art + Design to react to a single theme not only lends the show a degree of curatorial cohesion, but also offers our students an opportunity to see how the professionals they work with are addressing issues at the forefront of their own lives and research.”

This exhibition was curated and organized by Matthew Borgen in collaboration with a student committee which includes Willow Edmonds ’26, Molly Russom ’25, and Kelsie Winship ’26.

The artists represented in this exhibition include: Betsey Batchelor, Ash Garner “THECOLORG,” David Guinn, James Heimer, Arianna Kendra, June Lee, Carole Loeffler, Jennifer Manzella, Kyle Margiotta, Karen Misher, Christian “Patch” Patchell, Krista Profitt, Abbey Ryan, Abigail Synnestvedt, Idalia Vasquez-Achury, Julia Way, and Maryann Worrell.