All Peoples of the Earth: Selections from the Berea College Art Collection

On display in the Dimitrie Berea Gallery, this exhibit includes over 100 examples of visual art and material culture that emphasize the connections and experiences that humans share across cultures, time, and space. Because our permanent collection is so vast (with over 16,000 objects!), artworks will rotate on and off view throughout the year, so there will be something new to see with every visit you make to the Galleries.

Visual art and material culture – the things that people design with intention, creativity, and technical skill – have for ages provided insight into our belief systems and social customs, our long-held traditions and day-to-day lives, and how we see ourselves, and one another, as individuals. By closely considering the items that people make, wear, use, and value, we can learn something deeper about our shared humanity.

The selected artworks and objects from the Berea College Art Collection on display in All Peoples of the Earth are organized not by style, date, or culture of origin, but instead by categories of human experience that connect us across time and space. Viewers may notice overlaps in some areas, instances where these thematic groupings blur. For example, should a painting of fishing boats be placed within “Observation & Documentation” or “Labor & Leisure”? Does a vessel used in tea ceremonies fit better within “Belief & Ritual” or “Fashion & Function”? These gray areas underscore the multifaceted functions that visual art and material culture can serve, while also reflecting and exposing the challenges inherent in curatorial work and, by extension, all historical inquiry. In resisting easy classification, art challenges us to be open to the possibility of multiple interpretations, not only about visual culture but about our world – and ourselves – more broadly.