2026 Professional Practice and Senior Art Exhibitions
From March 9th to the 27th, Emma Foster’s senior exhibit, A Walk Through Dogwood, was displayed in the Meadows Museum on campus. This was the first of 5 total senior art exhibits to come to campus in the next coming months.
Foster describes her exhibit as “exploring the beauty that can be found in the mundane,” as she used photo references that she took in her neighborhood of Dogwood. The exhibit includes 13 larger canvases to contrast the 18 smaller paintings that “echo how beauty can be found in small, subtle observations when alone in nature.” Although one might describe the paintings as landscapes, they are tightly focused to emphasize small details.
The process for Foster started in 2024 when she started some of her paintings; it originally started as a “pet project at home” because she wanted to improve at painting, as she normally works in graphite making portraits. She chose to photograph and use her own references because she enjoyed walking around her neighborhood and thought nature was a “forgiving subject,” and she was able to take more creative liberties and translate her photos as she saw them, just having fun with her work.
The Professional Practice course is divided into two semesters; the fall is led by art professor Joshua Chambers, who guides the students in their production of pieces for the exhibit. He says the semester is a lot of time for exploration, building off of themes and ideas that they discovered or explored earlier in their courses at Centenary. He will meet with the students the summer before their senior year to help discuss ideas for what they want to do. Chambers emphasizes that the most important thing is that the student’s work showcases the skill and the things they have learned but also “begins to be this identifying body that is inherent to the individual artist. The work for the exhibition should be a springboard into their future, not the end of their time at Centenary.
The course works to create a stronger sense of independence and identity for the artists, and they work on in-depth explorations of specific themes and ideas, similar to a thesis as would be done in graduate school. Another goal is to help give an understanding of practical skills, like how to budget for the creation of works and how to self-market to different galleries. The more that artists can talk about their work and contextualize it, the more legitimacy they have when trying to pursue funding. “We all know that artists make art,” Chambers says, “but there’s also a lot of hidden work; it’s very entrepreneurial.”
The spring semester is led by Meadows Museum director, Alissa Klaus. After the students complete their work with Chambers, they move on to work with Klaus, learning how to write panels and figure out how to hang pieces around the room. Klaus notes that all of the seniors this year are studio arts students, with museum management students borrowing pieces from the museum to curate their own exhibit. All students have to interpret their work and do an artist or curator talk.
Klaus gives the students some points to focus on, or exhibition goals; they have to know the basic facts like titles of the exhibit and dates, but they also have to focus on making sure their pieces fit the space they are put in, write text panels, think about how they want to guide people through the exhibit, and think about what their project is contributing to the fields of museum studies or studio art. Klaus says this experience is for students to demonstrate what they learned and also gain professional experience that can be taken forward into the future.
Jude William’s exhibit, In (Joy) the Red, will be displayed in Magale Library from March 24 to July 17. Jordyn Templeton’s exhibit, Soundtrack of Home, will be in the Meadows Museum from March 31 to April 17. Kaitlyn Moton’s exhibit, The Garden He Planted, will be in the Meadows Museum from April 21 to May 8. Teddy Graves’ exhibit, Naomi Ruth: the Life, the Death, the Legacy, will be displayed in the Meadows Museum in fall 2026.