Gallery Talk by Priscilla Briggs in her exhibition For the Gods: Photographs of India by Priscilla Briggs, in the Hillstrom Museum of ArtMarch 17, 2019 at 3:30–4:30 p.m.

Priscilla Briggs, Gustavus Adolphus Faculty member since 2003, will give a Gallery Talk on Sunday, March 17 (3:30 to 4:30 p.m.) in her exhibition For the Gods: Photographs of India by Priscilla Briggs, in the Hillstrom Museum of Art. The Gallery Talk (which was rescheduled from an earlier date of February 24) is free and open to the public.

For additional information on For the Gods and the concurrent exhibition at the Hillstrom Museum of Art (Recent Acquistions of the Hillstrom Museum of Art) please see below.

The Hillstrom Museum of Art presents concurrent exhibitions, For the Gods: Photographs of India by Priscilla Briggs, and Recent Acquisitions of the Hillstrom Museum of Art, on view February 18 through April 18, 2019, with an opening reception Sunday, February 24, 3 to 5 p.m., and a gallery talk by Priscilla Briggs Sunday March 17, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

For the Gods is based on photography made during Briggs' time in India during a sabbatical, in January to March 2017, and again in January 2019. The photographs relate ancient and enduring beliefs about caste and karma to contemporary economic and environmental issues in India. Earlier, less extensive versions of For the Gods were exhibited last year at Rosalux Gallery and at the Christensen Center Gallery at Augsburg College, both in Minneapolis.

Briggs, who joined the faculty of Gustavus Adolphus College in 2003, holds an MFA degree in photography and digital imaging from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Some of her works for this exhibit were made possible through the generous funding of a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant. Briggs is a past recipient of a McKnight Artist Fellowship for Photography grant. She has exhibited extensively, with one-person shows including in Costa Mesa, California; Jamaica, New York; Evanston, Illinois; Fairfax, Virginia; and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Briggs has participated in numerous international group exhibitions, including in Seoul, Beijing, Rome, and Edinburgh. Her artist monograph, Impossible is Nothing: China's Theatre of Consumerism, was published in 2017 and featured her photographs of China, some of which were shown in an earlier monographic exhibit at the Hillstrom Museum of Art.

For the Gods is accompanied by a fully-illustrated brochure, available free of charge to visitors, and Briggs' photographs are available for purchase from the artist.

Recent Acquisitions of the Hillstrom Museum of Art features 16 recently-acquired artworks including paintings in oil, watercolor, and gouache, plus prints, sculptures in bronze, and a pencil drawing. All were donated directly to the Hillstrom Museum of Art or acquired by the Museum with funds resulting from donations.

Included are works by 13 artists, all of them Americans with the exception of the highly-regarded Swedish painter Oscar Lycke (1877-1927), represented by a beautiful wintry landscape. Nine of the artists had not been represented previously in the Museum's collection, among them the great American modernist Marsden Hartley (1877-1943).

The exhibit features 12 works that were given or promised by new donors to the Museum. The list of donors, among them alumni of Gustavus Adolphus College, includes Ardis Almén (Swanson, class of 1949), Roger Arvid Anderson, Thomas J. Arneson, David and Kathryn (Rydland, class of 1971) Gilbertson, Dawn (Ekstrom, class of 1967) and Edward Michael, The Wasie Foundation, and James F. White.

Recent Acquisitions is accompanied by a fully-illustrated brochure available free of charge to visitors.

The Hillstrom Museum of Art's regular hours are weekdays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and weekends, 1 to 5 p.m. As with all programs of the Museum, the exhibition For the Gods and Recent Acquisitions and the related opening reception and gallery talk are free and open to the public. Additional information about the Hillstrom Museum of Art can be found at www.gustavus.edu/hillstrom. Give a gift to Hillstrom Museum of Art