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

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 here 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 “Care & Comfort”? 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.