A transformation of the 4th floor of Beckman Hall is underway thanks to two student-curated exhibitions featuring artwork from the Escalette Collection of Art. The first exhibition, titled Relative Fantasies, is now on display in the hallway outside of Academic Advising.

Students in Contemporary Gallery Practices working with Escalette Collection art handler to hang Fairy Tales: Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty) by Carole Caroompas.

Relative Fantasies was curated by students in Georgia Lassner’s Contemporary Gallery Practices (ART 296) course. As part of their exploration of contemporary gallery and art display practices, students in Professor Lassner’s class researched three artists from the Escalette Collection and wrote interpretive labels. To help with their assignment, Jennifer Vanegas Rocha, Curatorial Assistant at the Broad Museum in Los Angeles, visited the class to talk about researching and writing in museum spaces. They also designed the placement of the works and worked with the Escalette Collection’s art handlers to install the exhibition.

Experiencing every step in the process of curating an art exhibition was one aspect of this project the students found most exciting. Juju Pinto (Psychology ’25) describes how “curating for the Escalette [Collection] is a first-time experience that I will never forget. We were challenged to write about art in ways none of us had previously. We got to physically see the fruits of our labor go up onto the walls and it was extremely rewarding.” Bella Marinos (Psychology ’23) similarly found that “researching and creating comprehensive texts to accompany each of these unique works was an especially rewarding experience.”

Relative Fantasies is an exhibition of works by Carole Caroompas, Ellina Kevorkian, and Suvan Geer, a trio of Southern California artists all considering the contemporary meaning of femininity, but each with distinct materials, styles, and viewpoints. Throughout this exhibition, Caroompas, Kevorkian, and Geer tell three different stories of what it means to love, experience heartbreak, and challenge tradition through their experiences and critiques of what it is to live as a woman in the modern era.

Relative Fantasies was curated by Alex Kraft, Kiera Laehy, Bella Marinos, Leonid Osipov, Juju Pinto, Kiley Silkman, and Devyn Pon. The introduction text was written by Bella Marinos and Juju Pinto.

We encourage you to visit the exhibition on the 4th Floor Hallway of Beckman Hall.

We invite you to explore all the works in the Escalette Collection by visiting our eMuseum. 

Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences is the proud home of the Phyllis and Ross Escalette Permanent Collection of Art. The Escalette Collection exists to inspire critical thinking, foster interdisciplinary discovery, and strengthen bonds with the community. Beyond its role in curating art in public spaces, the Escalette is a learning laboratory that offers diverse opportunities for student and engagement and research, and involvement with the wider community. The collection is free and open to the public to view.