At the core of the Escalette Collection’s mission is a commitment to making art as accessible as possible. External loans support this goal by allowing the Collection to be shared with institutions and communities beyond Chapman’s campus. This fall semester, the Escalette Collection loaned artwork to two Southern California institutions for exhibitions that introduced new audiences, conversations, and forms of engagement to the Collection.

Angels Gate Cultural Center

The Escalette Collection loaned Naomi by Cara Romero to the Angels Gate Cultural Center, a community arts center in San Pedro, for their exhibition Sustainers of Life (10/9/25 – 1/24/26). Co-curated by Cecelia Caro and Laurie Steelink (an Escalette artist), Sustainers of Life opened in conjunction with the Many Winters Gathering of Elders. The exhibition features contemporary Native and Indigenous women artists whose works, created in a range of media, explore mourning and resilience among those who nurture life. Themes of colonialism, motherhood, and the crisis of missing Native and Indigenous women and children are woven throughout the artworks on display.

Cara Romero, Naomi, photograph printed on Legacy Platine paper, 2017. Purchased with funds from the Ellingson Family.

Naomi, part of Cara Romero’s First American Girl series, challenges the negative and overly generalized stereotypes often applied to Native and Indigenous women and critiques the commercialization of Native identities. In this series, Romero portrays Native women as nuanced individuals with distinct cultural identities, highlighted through the objects and clothing that accompany them.

Romero’s work is shown alongside pieces by Weshoyot Alvitre, Emily Clarke, Katie Dorame, Eve-Lauryn Little Shell LaFountain, Cara Romero, Corey Stein, and Linda Vallejo.

Read more about the exhibition here.

Sustainers of Life with Naomi by Cara Romero featured on the orange wall. Photo credit: Jordan Rodriguez

Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University

The Escalette Collection also loaned Cactus Hour by Samantha Roth to the Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University in Malibu for their exhibition Hold My Hand in Yours (9/6/25-10/10/25). This exhibition focuses on the hand as a motif used to express labor, intimacy, and care. Featuring a wide range of mediums, ranging from video to social practice, Hold My Hand in Yours considers the hand as a site of touch, connection, and social exchange.

colored-pencil outline of a cactus with hands sticking out from it. Background is black.

Samantha Roth, Cactus Hour, paper, black gesso, colored pencils, 2024. Purchased with funds from the Escalette Endowment.

Cactus Hour was created by Samantha Roth as a reflection of her experience becoming a new mother. The hands throughout the work tug, cradle, and caress cactus leaves, echoing the way an infant holds its mother while breastfeeding. Through this imagery, Roth uses hands to explore the moments in our lives when our bodies change, adapt, and sometimes feel unfamiliar even to ourselves.

Read more about the exhibition here.

Hold My Hand in Yours, featuring Cactus Hour by Samantha Roth on the left. Photo credit: Paul Salveson

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.