Coming to a Gallery Near You: Art, Film, and Photography on Campus

By Kate Wiggins
Music Journalist  

No matter the city, town or desolate plain, if you can find yourself on a college campus, you’re bound to run into the arts. Whether it’s visual art, theater, dance or music, Texas State has an abundant variety of Fine Arts to choose from, all conveniently located under the shadow of Old Main. But you may have missed some of our more subtle offerings hiding in plain sight.

These galleries are open and free to the public and contain unique and incredible work.

Visual Art Galleries

Located in the Joann Cole Mitte Art Building (near the Rec) on the second floor, Galleries 1 & 2 will display 16 varied collections throughout the Fall 2016/Spring 2017 year beginning August 30. Featuring the work of prominent artists as well as annually showing the work of faculty, students and alumni, there is always something interesting and vital happening behind those doors.

Art students display their thesis work in the studios around the ends of semesters so if you keep an eye out or check out the gallery website for the dates of their showings. You can have an opportunity to see what people your own age have spent tons of time, blood, sweat, tears and expensive trips to Hobby Lobby for (and you get free food.) There are certainly some talented kids working round the clock in Joann Cole Mitte and you don’t want to leave Texas State without sneaking a peak at the future Jackson Pollocks and Van Goghs of the world.

The Wittliff Collections

Housed our very own Alkek Library on the seventh floor, The Wittliff Collections contains a huge archive of literature, photography, music, film and about a million other things which they pull from to produce about five exhibitions which rotate around the Wittliff’s permanent fixture, the Lonesome Dove Collection. This permanent collection displays the major costumes, props and more from the powerful miniseries adapted from the novel by Larry McMurtry. You can view the Lonesome Dove Collection year round, however, you can’t touch any of the costumes. Even if it’s Robert Duval’s long johns and you ask very nicely.

Among the changing exhibitions are the Southwestern Writers Collection, which displays original manuscripts, drawing, journals and much more from a variety of writers, filmmakers and musicians as well as The Southwestern and Mexican Photography collection, which is one of the most notable in the country.