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A picture of The Merton Spire, which is a tower carved from soft, porous limestone.

Visual Art

So Hoos Asking: What Is a Limestone Spire From Across the Pond Doing on Grounds?

Don’t worry if you’re unsure about the three-ton limestone sculpture in the lower garden of Pavilion VI, why it’s there remains a mystery. The sculpture is the Merton Spire, a really big gift from Merton College, Oxford, that originally perched atop a chapel buttress. A plaque on the piece reads “A pinnacle of Merton College Chapel Tower, erected 1451, presented to the University of Virginia, 1927, by Merton College, Oxford.”

https://news.virginia.edu/content/so-hoos-asking-what-limestone-spire-across-pond-doing-grounds

Ubuhlanti: Solution Oriented Being at The Fralin Museum of Art. Photo by Stacey Evans.

UBUHLANTI FROM SOUTH AFRICA TO UVA: Solution Based Curating at The Fralin Museum of Art

What does it mean to bring the world to UVA? In recent years, “curating” has become a hot-topic everywhere from museums and universities to fine-dining and social network influencers. As consumers, we can now select from a global array of options in every domain of life. While this has made us more attuned to the diversity of “world” experiences, it has also resulted in the inequalities that curator Geraldo Mosquero has identified, between “curated” and “curating” cultures. Bridging this divide has been a central question for Profs. Noel Lobley (music) and Henry Skerrritt (art history) as they developed the Co-Present Art Initiative with Xhosa artist Xolile ‘X’ Madinda in both Makhanda, South Africa and Charlottesville, Virginia.

June 5, 2025

Visual Art

Arts This Week: Ruffin Gallery’s Echoes of the Shadows

The Ruffin Art Gallery graduation exhibition is open until June 6th. The exhibition is a collection of student works curated by two of the department’s graduate students. For Arts This Week, we spoke with Elena Yu Ganiyu Jimoh and Elnaz Latifpour.

https://www.wtju.net/arts-this-week-ruffin-gallerys-echoes-of-the-shadows/