The University of Rhode Island’s Department of Art and Art History is expanding its visibility around campus. One key player helping to move various plans and goals forward is Rebecca Levitan, a lecturer who came to URI last fall. In addition to teaching painting classes, Levitan now works as the curator of the Main Gallery in the Fine Arts Center. “My goal is to make the Main Gallery a more integral part of the URI community and the community at large,” Levitan says of her role on campus. “My personal interest is in thinking about it as a teaching gallery where students and others can come see different work that might not be presented elsewhere in the region.” This semester the Main Gallery presents Pardon Our Appearance, a group show exploring the unglamorous but vitally important behind-the-scenes jobs of the art world.

The Main Gallery in the Fine Arts Center is not the only place art will be displayed on campus now. Mary Parlange, wife of new URI President Marc Parlange, recently renovated the dining room of their house on campus to accommodate exhibitions that can be changed on a semester basis. “We really wanted to make sure the house was another venue for artists at URI to get some visibility,” Parlange said. The first exhibition installed last fall was curated by Barbara Pagh, faculty emerita. As the URI campus sits on Narragansett land, Parlange has also made an effort to include art from Narragansett Indian Tribe members, including some ceremonial fans, rattles, shields, and other work from Robin Spears that are currently displayed in the house.

Besides the dining room in the Parlange’s home, the main hallway in Green Hall – a historic building on campus that was built in 1937 and is now home to the President’s and Provosts’ offices; Enrollment Services; and Community, Equity, and Diversity, among others – will now host rotating exhibitions from faculty, student, alumni, and guest artists. This upcoming fall semester, the exhibition will feature work by Maeve Hickey, a photographer who splits her time between Ireland and Arizona. “She has been taking photos for many years of things that happen along the U.S.-Mexico border,” Levitan explains. “The exhibition will feature her photographs and assemblage work she’s done with different objects that relate to her photographs.” Levitan notes that this space in Green Hall will offer the opportunity to collaborate with different groups on campus and in the community and she looks forward to the possibilities.