John & Geraldine Lilley Museum of Art

10/14/2026

A first for us!

We helped transport something older than planet earth. The Lilley Museum of Art was happy to help out our campus friends at the Fleischmann Planetarium and Science Center.

While they undergo some major renovations, Director Paul McFarlane needed to find a new home for several of their amazing meteorites. We helped him move them to our other friend’s house, the Keck Museum. Happy travels, meteorite!

And see you all soon this Saturday for Day at the Museum…

10/12/2026

Today we are honored to highlight an artist with works in our permanent collection, Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation) created paintings and drawings that reflected her childhood where art and horses were equally significant. Her paintings of landscapes depict tepees, tools, pottery and other Indian artifacts. Later in her career she began to embellish her artwork by incorporating collage elements.

1. Cheyenne Series #42, n.d., pastel on paper
2. Charlo #27, n.d. Pastel on paper

If you want to view more works from our permanent collection, follow the link in our bio.

10/05/2026

We are so pleased to see Courtney Leonard’s BREACH #2 in The Data at Hand: Data Physicalizations of Earth and Space, at Mills College Art Museum.

This beloved piece is on loan from the Lilley Museum of Art’s permanent collection. The exhibition features contemporary artists who combine traditional craft materials and practices with data information, to explore the world in an age of climate change.

The show runs from September 12 - December 6, 2026. If you are Oakland, go see!

Photos by Ruby Wallau

10/02/2026

Rebecca Cummins explores the sculptural, experiential, and sometimes humorous possibilities of light and natural phenomena, often referencing the history of science and optics in installations that have included a machine for making rainbows, a photographic video r***e, paranoid dinner-table devices, fungi spore prints, microscopy - and a variety of sculptural and photographic approaches to marking time (including sun and moon dials).

1. Spore Drift # 51, Three Swirls, 2020-2023, pigment print
2. Spore Drift # 8, Key, 2020-2023, pigment print
3. Spore Drift # 14, New Burst, 2020-2023, pigment print
4. Spore Drift # 2, Crags & Dust, 2020-2023, pigment print
5. Spore Drift # 10, Capsule, 2020-2023, pigment print

09/30/2026

Kim Abeles is an artist whose artworks explore biography, geography, feminism, and the environment.

Her work speaks to society, science literacy, and civic engagement, creating projects with science and natural history museums, health departments, air pollution control agencies, National Park Service, and community organizations.

In 1987, she innovated a method to create images from the smog in the air, and Smog Collectors brought her work to international attention.

09/28/2026

Curator Stephanie Gibson describing work by Futurefarmers in Earth’s Winding Sheet.

Futurefarmers is a group of diverse practitioners aligned through an interest in making work that is relevant to the time and place surrounding us.

Founded in 1995, a design studio serves as a platform to support art projects and an artist in residence program.

Select members include Amy Franceschini, an artist whose work facilitates encounter, exchange and tactile forms of inquiry by calling into question the "certainties" of a given time or place where a work is situated. In 1995, Amy founded Futurefarmers as a collaborative platform to consider the social, political and environmental organization of space.

Another member is Michael Swaine. Originally trained as a ceramicist, Swaine works in a variety of materials, methods, and media and has had a long-time focus on collaborative work. Michael has collaborated with Futurefarmers since 1997.

09/28/2026

09/23/2026

On view now in the Front Door Gallery: "Gather, Carry, Keep"! If you find yourself in Church Fine Arts, be sure to pause for a moment to view this beautiful collection of vessels from the Great Basin.

09/21/2026

The Orvis School of Nursing, College of Liberal Arts, and the Lilley Museum of Art invite you to “The Poetry of Care: An Evening with Dr. Shirley Stephenson” this Thursday, Sept. 24, from 5-7pm.

The evening will begin with a reception and mingling, followed by a reading of Dr. Stephenson’s poetry in the Harlan O. & Barbara R. Hall Recital Hall and a curatorial walk through the Lilley Museum. The event is free and open to all.

Please RSVP here: https://unrnursing.ticketspice.com/poetry-of-care-