The Artist in Residence develops and shares new work; engages students, researchers, and the public; offers opportunities for skill- and knowledge-sharing workshops; and creates space for personal inquiry and collaborative relationships to flourish. Aided by the Center’s collection of over 1,000 rare books and manuscripts, gardens, and meadowscape, artists explore the ways in which their work intersects with Renaissance (1490-1750) thought and craft to produce work that generates new perspectives on the relationship between the early modern world and our own. 

A headshot of Susan Montgomery
FATAL FLORA: POISONOUS REVENGE NARRATIVES
Susan Montgomery

September 28, 2024-December 2024, Artist in Residence Susan Montgomery blends history, memory, and the imagination o recall the real and fictional women who navigate the line between medicine and poison.

View the Exhibition Catalog here.

Read the Inside UMass story here. Read the Inside UMass story here.
Brandon Graving creating a print.
ELUSIVE PRIZE: WONDER, WING & TRANSMUTATION
Brandon Graving

May 4, 2024-Fall 2024, Artist in Residence Brandon Graving draws on the texts and materials in the Kinney Center's collection to explore ideas of ambition taking flight in the early modern world and our own. 

View the Exhibition Catalog here.

Read the Inside UMass story here. Read the Inside UMass story here.
A close-up of Suzette Marie Martin and their work.
APOCALYPSE: SCIENCE & MYTH
Suzette Marie Martin

April 22, 2023 - Fall 2023, Artist in Residence Suzette Marie Martin showcases new work that layers data from climate and environmental research with the Biblical tale of banishment from paradise to reveal the eco-anxieties that link the past and the present. The American Psychological Association describes eco-anxiety as “fear of environmental cataclysm from observing the seemingly irrevocable impact of climate change.” Martin’s work acknowledges the “unequivocal scientific evidence” for anthropogenic climate change, and bears witness to the consequences of intensifying ecological decline.

View the Exhibition Catalog here.

Read an interview with Suzette here.

Read the Inside UMass story here. Read the Inside UMass story here.
Madge Evers.
FORAGED: KITCHEN GARDEN HERBARIA
Madge Evers

November 12, 2022 - March 15, 2023, Artist in Residence Madge Evers's exhibit of original work explores multispecies collaborations through a series of cyanotype and mushroom spore prints with materials gathered from the Kinney Center’s kitchen garden and meadow.

View the Exhibition Catalog here.

Read the Inside UMass story here. Read the Inside UMass story here.
Andrea Caluori.
MAPPING TERROIR: MEMORY & MYTH
Andrea Caluori

June 18 - September 30, 2022, the Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies showcases Mapping Terroir: Memory & Myth, an artist exhibit by Andrea Caluori that explores connections across the Center’s rare book collection of early modern agricultural and husbandry manuals and contemporary cultures of farming today. The exhibit explores how myth and historical memory shape relationships between humans, animals, and plants, and thereby foster ideas of earthly terroir.

View the Exhibition Catalog here.

Read the Daily Hampshire Gazette feature here.

Read the Inside UMass story here. Read the Inside UMass story here.