Photo: Retrospective Gallery. Shayna Clayton & Britt Pierro
by Jacob Anderson-Kester
Currently on display in Evergreen’s Gallery is an exhibit showcasing hidden pieces from Evergreen’s past, fittingly titled Retrospective. The exhibit’s works were curated from Evergreen’s art collection, with a particular focus to the 1970s Pacific Northwest art scene and the earliest days of the college.
“A lot of [the art has] been in storage for a very long time, so we wanted to bring them out and showcase them and talk about how weird and wonderful some of the collection is, because some of it is very old,” says Michelle Pope, Evergreen’s visual arts operations manager, “There’s the print collection, which is the very first collection of works [from] 1971 … In 1976, we got another large sum of money, and we went out and bought the teaching collection.”
Evergreen has long collected and purchased pieces of art for displays such as these. The purpose of these collections, as well as the Gallery in the library building, is to act as “teaching tools for students,” according to Pope. Fittingly, the show is arranged to allow large areas for groups of people to discuss the art.
Perhaps the most interesting commentary this show holds when placed upon the current climate of the college is the way in which it plays with conversations ongoing about Evergreen’s past and future. Evergreen has been facing ongoing budget cuts since 2016—with particular hits to Evergreen’s arts, including the theater program, Photoland, and beyond. Through this exhibit, one may begin to look back to the days in which Evergreen more proactively fostered a culture of art and its creation. If the Evergreen admin’s Big Bets, Blue Skies conferences are any indication, there seems to be a longing on all sides for a future in which we can “ … reclaim Evergreen’s place as a national model for higher education.”
A thought-provoking theme added to this revealing of Evergreen’s lost past comes from the student voice added to the collection. “Something that was really striking to me is that the teaching collection and the print collection were two groups that were specifically acquired to showcase Pacific Northwest artists, and there was no Indigenous work,” says Johnny McCaffrey, a student involved with the organization of Retrospective.
Althea O’Dell, another student involved with Retrospective, adds, “This is an evolving discussion, and when any institution owns art, the reality is that the back collection isn’t perfect.” Both Althea and Johnny expressed the feeling that Evergreen’s art catalog has holes in representation. The gallery includes several pieces of text with the purpose of creating conversations around the themes of representation and appropriation.
Retrospective, then, is more than just weird art from the ‘70s, and more than something to fill the gallery space. Its purpose, according to its curators and commentators, is to foster discussion in pertinent, timely issues, relevant to the immediate future of the college as well as to larger discussions in society.
Retrospective is open to the public until Apr. 9 in the Evergreen Gallery, room 2204 in the library. The Gallery is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, 12–4 p.m., closed Mar. 19 through Mar. 30 for spring break.
