About the Lecture Series
Contemporary art invites us to see the world differently, ask new questions, and explore ideas across disciplines. The Schmidt Family Lecture Series on Contemporary Art brings these conversations to Principia College through thought-provoking lectures by acclaimed artists, offering the campus community and the public opportunities to engage with contemporary art at no cost.
Established in 2022 through a collaboration between Penny Schmidt (US’75, C’79), benefactor of the James K. Schmidt Gallery, and Paul Ryan (C’77), former studio art professor and gallery director, the series explores the cultural relevance and immediacy of contemporary art, connecting artistic practice with broader ideas, experiences, and perspectives.
Upcoming Events
Internationally Acclaimed Artist Dyani White Hawk
Dyani White Hawk (b. 1976, Sičánǧu Lakota) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Minneapolis. Her practice, strongly rooted in painting and beadwork, extends into sculpture, installation, video, and performance, reflecting upon cross-cultural experiences through the amalgamation of influences from Lakota and Euro/American abstraction. White Hawk was featured in the 2022 Whitney Biennial and recent mid-career survey Dyani White Hawk: Love Language co-organized by the Walker Art Center and Remai Modern and Speaking to Relatives at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver and Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.
She has received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, Creative Capital, Anonymous Was a Woman, Academy of Arts and Letters, United States Artists, Joan Mitchell Foundation, Jerome Foundation, McKnight Foundation and Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Her work is among many public and private collections such as the Brooklyn Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Denver Art Museum, Guggenheim, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Walker Art Center, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. She is represented by Bockley Gallery in Minneapolis and Alexander Gray Associates in New York.
