January 14 – May 22, 2022

Art is made to be seen, yet the act of looking inspires fundamental questions about the nature of art. How do artists communicate visually? How can works of art explore broad issues and concepts? How do artists and artworks encourage audiences to think deeply, perhaps even critically, about what they see? These works of art from the Haggerty Museum of Art’s collection ask challenging questions and we invite you, the viewer, to answer. This experiential exhibition is modeled on the Museum’s Art Across Curriculum programs, which offer K-12 educators a menu of enrichment options and train university students studying education to integrate the visual arts into their classroom curricula. The works on view were selected by Marquette University and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students who helped develop the Focus on the Visual Arts curriculum. This exhibition is presented in sections framed by these questions: What is art? Who makes art? Where does art belong? How has art changed throughout time? How does art cross curriculum? Throughout this exhibition artworks will be accompanied by prompts that compel close and active looking. We hope that this exercise stimulates additional questions for you: what else does art ask?