Exhibition Opening Receptions and Family Day at McColl Center

Sovereign: Honoring Bodily Autonomy Opening Reception
Thursday, March 6, 2025
6 to 8 p.m.
Free

Sovereign: Honoring Bodily Autonomy is an interdisciplinary exhibition that invites thoughtful exploration of bodily autonomy from a variety of perspectives. Through artistic mediums such as painting, sculpture, installation, and performance, the exhibition delves into themes of self-determination, consent, personal agency, reproductive rights, healthcare access, and identity expression. By amplifying the work of artists from marginalized groups, including voices from the LGBTQIA+ community, Sovereignoffers a platform for perspectives that are often missing from mainstream discussions around autonomy and identity.

The exhibition also addresses broader global challenges, including access to reproductive healthcare, discrimination, and the cultural factors that shape how bodily autonomy is understood across different communities. Through the exploration of these deeply personal and global issues, Sovereign invites visitors to reflect on how personal freedom is navigated and experienced within various cultural and societal contexts. Curated by Meredith Connelly, (https://www.meredithconnelly.com/artist-meredith-connelly) the exhibition seeks to create space for meaningful dialogue and connection around these essential themes.

Dark & Divine Opening Reception
Thursday, March 6, 2025
6 to 8 p.m.
Free

The McColl Center presents Dark & Divine, a group exhibition curated by Dasia Hood, featuring artists Dionna Bright, Chad Cartwright, Patrick Sainte, Jerry Taliaferro, Darian Parham, Jason Dawkins, and Ida M. Irby.

Dark & Divine is a bold reawakening of the Black artist’s connection to nudity, exploring its cultural and spiritual significance across the African-American Diaspora. The exhibition challenges the historical distortions imposed by colonization, society, and media that have hypersexualized and desecrated Black nudity, creating a dialogue of shame around sensuality and self-image.

Through collaborative artist-model portraits, mixed media works, and personal storytelling, the featured artists reclaim Black bodies as sacred, powerful, and deserving of reverence. Each work reflects on nudity through spiritual, societal, and personal lenses, using it as a vehicle for self-expression, healing, and a redefinition of beauty.

Dark & Divine centers Black divinity as the perspective for exploring sensuality and nudity, inviting viewers to reconnect with their own bodies and sexuality as vessels of freedom, intimacy, and the divine. This transformative exhibition fosters new conversations about the inherent beauty and sacredness of Black bodies, offering a space for liberation and reverence.

Family Day
Saturday, March 8, 2025
10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Free

This is a day of creative fun for all ages, with activities inspired by the McColl artists and their work.

• Zine Making – Create your very own mini magazine using drawing, collage, or printmaking techniques, inspired by Ioannis Anastasiou and Majka Dokudowicz, artists who run a printmaking studio and bookbindery in Poland.
• Relief Printing – In this activity, we’re experimenting with Styrofoam plate relief printing to make bold, graphic prints of everyday objects, inspired by Ioannis and Majka’s Déjà vu print series.
• Felt Creatures – Stitch and stuff your own soft sculpture creature using colorful felt, inspired by the playful textile works of Jen Clay!
• Prehistoric Sculptures – Balam Bartolomé has been exploring the ancient inhabitants of North Carolina in his work, from mastodons to saber-toothed cats. In this activity you can sculpt your own prehistoric creature from air dry clay!