The Bascom’s major exhibitions highlight the work of the artists who live and work in our region, Bascom instructors and students, Artist Fellows and Residents, as well as world-renowned artists whose work might not otherwise be seen in this region. The Bascom's 3 galleries and the Winkler Sculpture and Nature Trail are host to approximately 10 exhibitions each year, which pair with our Outreach and Education departments to attract 20,000 visitors to The Bascom. Free guided tours are available upon advanced request.

The Bascom's 2023 Annual Theme: Origins

Origins, The Bascom’s annual theme, invites artists and curators to explore questions about the sources of their ideas, materials, and methods of making. Many of our exhibits this year focus on the materials of art – from Winter Resident Artist Kimberly English’s examination of the materiality of textiles in The Ravel & The Rest, to the Moulthrops’ three-generation investigation into the potential of native trees to be turned into beautiful bowls in Into the Wood.

The exhibit, Green Energy Park: Building Art and Community with Renewable Energy, and the Three Potters Symposium, Elements: Form and Fire, both consider the energy necessary to create artistic forms. Curator Kirsten Stingle brings together artists who explore the theme of origins and myth-making in the multi-media exhibit In.Visible. And Kinship Photography Collective presents Listening to the Land: Reimagining the Bartram Trail, offering visual celebrations of the power and majesty of the mountains, and human ties to the land. The theme of origins also gives the Bascom community an opportunity to explore our own sources of inspiration, dreams and growth, highlighted in this year’s exhibit of selections from the permanent collection, the annual juried members show, and in the on-going collective stories project, Our Bascom.

As we engage with the annual theme, our curators and artists invite us to think about origins as a form of story-telling; as John H. Arnold, has said,

…stories lead to other stories, journeys across a thousand miles of ocean lead to journeys across a continent, and the meanings and interpretations of these stories are legion. 'Origins' are simply where we choose to pick up the story, dictating (and dictated by) what kind of story it is we wish to tell. 

As the Bascom offers this season of visual arts experiences, we hope audiences will find a moment to engage with the journey of making, the stories we tell as artists and viewers, and ultimately, our own personal stories about the connection between ourselves and the world.