Allen Memorial Art Museum

10/23/2026

🏳️‍🌈 Art Talk: Saint Sebastian Through a Q***r Lens
🗓️ Wednesday, Oct 28 / 12 PM

Join Gallery Guide Esme Tobias (OC 2028) to explore three depictions of Saint Sebastian from the Allen’s collection. Together, we’ll consider their historical contexts and how Saint Sebastian has been interpreted from q***r perspectives. Then, connect these works with modern art through discussion and collage—and create your own q***r lens for looking at art.
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Image description: Three depictions of Saint Sebastian: a sculpture, a dramatic Baroque painting, and a stylized medieval painting, highlighting his wounded and exposed body.

10/21/2026

Chakaia Booker’s tire sculptures are often associated with city streets. But in the Allen’s collection, her work points somewhere else entirely.

Blue Bell (1998) takes its title from a traditional name for a dairy cow. At its core are parts from a milking machine, wrapped in layers of black rubber that twist into a massive knot. The work brings together two landscapes shaped by industry: the city and the farm.

The sculpture entered the museum’s collection as part of a group of works by important African American artists acquired between 1998 and 2003 under former director Sharon Patton, a specialist in African American art.

This October, Booker’s work takes a new form in Northeast Ohio, as her 17-foot sculpture of stainless steel and recycled Goodyear racing tires is installed at Lock 3 in Akron. We can’t wait to see it unveiled October 29th at 1:00pm!

Image caption: Chakaia Booker (American, b. 1953), “Blue Bell,” 1998. Rubber tires, steel, wood frame. John G. W. Cowles Director’s Fund, 2001.4

10/13/2026

💭 Mindful Meditation
🗓️ Thursday, Oct 15 / 12:15 PM

Relax, reflect, and reconnect with art. Libni López, local clinical therapist, and Ellis Lane (OC 2022), Curatorial Assistant in the Education Department, lead 45-minute Zoom mindfulness sessions centered on works from the Allen’s collection. Thursday’s art focus is on Yamaguchi Kayō (Japanese, 1899–1984), Egrets with Willow, 1920.

Free, but registration required: amam.oberlin.edu/meditation

10/12/2026

10/09/2026

🖌️ Object Talks this Weekend
🗓️ Friday, Oct 9 / 3:30 PM
🗓️ Saturday, Oct 10 / 11:45 AM and 3:45 PM

For Alumni Weekend, Gallery Guides will be giving informal Object Talks about their favorite works of art currently on view here at the Allen. These 20-minute discussions explore artists, themes, context, and symbolism in our world-renowned collection. Learn about some favorite objects currently on view at the Allen!

10/09/2026

☕ Tuesday Tea
🗓️ Oct 13 / 3 PM

Join us for tea and conversation with curator Kevin Greenwood next Tuesday for an introduction to two remarkable Tibetan Buddhist paintings on loan from the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art. Learn about the arhats, the enlightened disciples of the Buddha who appear throughout Buddhist art and literature.

10/06/2026

🎶 Cornelius & Karre Violin and Percussion Duo
🗓️ Saturday, October 10 / 2 PM

To celebrate homecoming weekend, Oberlin alumni Ross Karre (OC 2005), Associate Professor of Percussion, and violinist Emily Cornelius (OC 2005) will play a concert in dialogue with several exhibitions on view at the Allen. Join us for this thrilling musical performance!

10/02/2026

Meet Anka Chiorini (OC '27), one of our awesome Gallery Guides!

09/25/2026

🎨 Artist Talk with Mercedes Dorame
🗓️ Thursday, Oct 1 / 5:30 PM

For Mercedes Dorame, (American, Tongva, b. 1980), whose tribe is not federally recognized, art installation can be a way to build a world and create a space where she has autonomy. For her installation “Along the Water's Edge,” which serves as the centerpiece in the exhibition “The land is a being who remembers everything,” Dorame visited Oberlin College several times to meet with local Native artists, activists, and community leaders. Each one brought her to a site that has helped them connect to their heritage, and those sites became the subject matter of a new body of photographs that Dorame transferred to the panels hanging from the ceiling of the gallery. She incorporated elements of iridescence and waterways throughout to connect herself and viewers to the land and Tongva traditions.

📸: Field Studios

09/24/2026