Exhibition Wall
Create Space Program
Glass Display
Upper Create Space
Lower Create Space
Supported by the Malcolm Baldwin 1962 Fund, the VCAM Create Space Program invites students and faculty to create projects that incorporate installation, performance, video, archival research, digital pedagogy and other modes of making and display.
Two Create Spaces, the upper-level Glass Display, and the main level Exhibition Wall, are reservable for curricular and extra-curricular projects. Faculty and students from across the disciplines regularly partner with VCAM staff in realizing these projects, including the Maker Arts Space, the Haverford Innovations Program (HIP), the Hurford Center for the Arts and Humanities, and the Tri-co Film Festival. The spaces also support artists working under the auspices of the VCAM Philadelphia Artist-in-Residence Program, faculty teaching specifically in Visual Studies, and students staging various extracurricular projects.
While Create Spaces have been used for exhibitions, we strongly encourage proposals that involve other flexible forms of making and display, including performances; digital pedagogy; open studios for students, faculty, or visiting artists; workshops; and much more.
mcallina [at] haverford.edu (Matthew Seamus Callinan), Associate Director of the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, VCAM, and Campus Exhibitions, and meswarapu [at] haverford.edu (Manasi Eswarapu), Hurford Center Post-Baccalaureate Fellow, work with interested faculty and students to refine their ideas and develop project timelines. Projects may require workshops with VCAM staff on using tools, hanging, lighting, and digital production, designed to empower students with lasting skills for future creative projects.
Each space can be reserved for one of three slots per semester, with slots ranging from two to four weeks in length.
Propose a Project
Note: We’re also always interested in discussing projects more than a semester in advance!
- Project proposals are accepted on a rolling basis as space allows
- Before starting this application, email Associate Director mcallina [at] haverford.edu (Matthew Callinan) and HCAH Post-Baccalaureate Fellow meswarapu [at] haverford.edu (Manasi Eswarapu) to schedule a time to discuss your idea.
- Email a pdf application to Associate Director mcallina [at] haverford.edu (Matthew Callinan) and HCAH Post-Baccalaureate Fellow meswarapu [at] haverford.edu (Manasi Eswarapu) with the following:
- Name:
Email Address:
Department/Major/Minor/Interests if Undeclared: - A project proposal of 500 words or less. The proposal should explain how the project will be executed as well as the project’s intention, intended audience, and scope, that is, a list of the works you would like to exhibit, a detailed timeline for production and installation, and finally, any exhibition related programming. If you are a faculty member proposing a course-related project, discuss how it would enhance your course and how it would become a part of your course structure. If you are a student, discuss how this project engages with your curricular or extracurricular interests.
- Explain whether the VCAM Upper Create Space, the Lower Create Space, the Exhibition Wall, or the Glass Display Case in VCAM 201 would be the ideal location for your project. What could be a possible backup space if your preferred space is not available?
- We generally program 2-3 projects per semester in each location. When would your project ideally take place? Is there any flexibility?
- Share a detailed budget that includes as best as you can estimate the cost of installation, promotion, technology, personnel, or other resources you may need.
- Share any supplementary materials or portfolio that you wish to be considered as a part of your application—drawings, images, audio/video clips (please include links to these, not the actual files), scripts, visiting artist CVs, etc.
Have an idea? Let’s talk!
Please be in touch with Hurford Center Associate Director Matthew Callinan mcallina [at] haverford.edu and and HCAH Post-Baccalaureate Fellow Manasi Eswarapu meswarapu [at] haverford.edu.
Spaces are limited, so faculty proposing curricular projects are strongly encouraged to apply a semester in advance.
he / him / his
Associate Director, Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery and Campus Exhibitions
mcallina [at] haverford.edu
Past Projects
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Somatic, created by Cole Sansom '19 and Katie Hulihan BMC '20 for the class The Documentary Body, uses a plastic mannequin to explore themes of embodiment via interactive live-streaming video.
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"In Progress” was the final exhibition for the spring 2018 course “Theory and Practice of Conceptual Art.” The exhibition featured individual works of visual art, performances, and score based works, as well as a joint project in collaboration with Mariel Capanna, who donated a large painted mural which she had completed at Haverford. Visitors cut out their favorite sections, leaving verbal descriptions in their place.
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Organized by Tess Haas BMC '18, PLEASE TOUCH THE ART: an anti-aesthetic project features textile works that value tactility and touch over visual aesthetic. At the intersection of curatorial theory and artistic practice, this project aims to be wholly accessible to all. PLEASE TOUCH THE ART features small-, medium-, and large-scale embroidery works, along with one sculpture (co-created by local Philadelphia sculptor Cameron King) and one interactive piece.
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PACC project We’re in It (Remaking the World) rethought the problematic term “outsider art” to reconsider how all of us move between “inside” and “outside.” Building narratives and relationships through speech, drawing, and the written word, lead artist Samantha Mitchell worked with the artists and staff of Ardmore’s Center for Creative Works (CCW) to organize a VCAM exhibition of work created by CCW and Haverford artists, a bookmaking workshop, and other events.
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Curated by students in Sally Berger’s class Visual Studies 210: Moving Image Media and Art Exhibition, Green Screen features a mid-career exhibition of all of visiting filmmaker Sam Green’s short films.
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Created by Cristian Espinoza '18, Marisol is a multimedia performance and exhibition that explores the intricacies of an embodied intersectional life, considering the fluctuating emotional states an intersectional life can entail: loneliness, fear, confusion, joy, and pride. Photo: Alliyah Allen.
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Organized in conjunction with the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery exhibition Unwilling: Exercises in Melancholy, members of the Hurford Center’s 2017-18 Faculty Seminar “The Arts of Melancholy” created a public archive of artwork, texts, recordings, and other materials.
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VCAM hosted multidisciplinary artist Mariel Capanna for the first three weeks of April 2018, where she visited courses, facilitated a fresco workshop, and created an immersive three-walled painting exploring memory and loss.
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In this installation, Eli Baden-Lasar '21 explores garments as historical documents which he reanimates by wearing, ranging from his great-grandmother’s wedding veil to his grandfather’s medical scrubs and NYPD jacket to his sister’s prom dress.
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Food! Food? features paintings, drawings, watercolors, and collages by students in Ying Li’s painting and drawing classes in the Haverford Fine Arts Department, variously depicting food as cultural and metaphorical icons.
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This photographic timeline showcases the making of an electric guitar in the VCAM Maker Arts Space, built by Micah Maben '21 and documented by Jessica Lopez '21.
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Who Belongs? Exodus and Arrival features works by PACC artists Jacobia Dahm and Griselda San Martin that illuminate current political discourses on human rights, social justice, and the global refugee crisis.
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Luba Mendelevich '19’s installation recreates an amorphous memory of her childhood inspired by W. G. Sebald’s short story Dr. Henry Selwyn.
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Born into a conflict she was too young to remember, Dita Cavdarbasha ’19 created a series of poetry-videos addressed to her Serbian neighbors to attempt to reconcile the displacement that informs her identity.
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Created in conjunction with the course “PJHR 315: Oral History and Activism,” taught by Visiting Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies Anne Balay, Bus(t) the Bubble highlighted the Tri-Co Bus and Van drivers who knit together the Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and Swarthmore communities.
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In Lay/Lines, Isabella Siegel ’19 visualized layers of three Philadelphia neighborhoods and drew them onto sheets of clear acetate. The viewers were able to rearrange the layers, and interact with the work to bring layers to the front, or push others behind.
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Alliyah Allen ’18 created a series of photographic portraits of womxn of color at Haverford College, imagining the project as a remedy in a world where self-care can be easily overlooked.
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Created by Colin Fredrickson ’20, Shedding City focused on the discarded or “shed” items that are designed to be forgotten, drawing on recyclable materials collected over a month on campus.
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Created for the class Sculpture 200: Materials and Techniques with Naomi Safran-Hon, Jessie Lamworth ’18’s Big Mess seizes the open canvas of the room and animates an eruption of colors from its every facet.
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Organized in conjunction with Assistant Professor of Visual Studies Christina Knight’s course “American Queen: Drag in Contemporary Art and Performance,” American Queen gathered images and archival images of drag performance from Haverford College’s own Special Collections.