All Peoples of the Earth: Selections from the Berea College Art Collection
August 27, 2025 - May 1, 2026
Housed in the Dimitrie Berea Gallery, this ongoing exhibition 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 16,500 objects!), artworks 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.
Storytelling & Mythmaking
Art has always been an important conduit for telling and passing down stories. From fictional narratives and historical accounts to mythical tales and religious texts, people have turned to visual media to bring stories to life in ways that are thought-provoking, convincing, and deeply moving.
The artworks in this section represent a wide range of storytelling methods and speak to how literature, the written and spoken word, and the visual arts are all intertwined. At the same time, these objects challenge us to consider how stories from the past are continuously constructed and made over, how familiar narratives might shift when told or illustrated in a different or unexpected way, and how visual media contributes to our understanding of what we believe to be true about the world.
Observation & Documentation
Since the prehistoric era, people have been compelled to record their observations for posterity, documenting the landscape, themselves and others, and their personal surroundings in ways both realistic and imaginative. Through a variety of media – from painting, drawing, photography, and printmaking – this selection of artworks provides visual evidence of the human impulse to document, to make permanent and personal, the world around them.
Labor & Leisure
The value and dignity of labor is entrenched in Berea College culture as an integral part of the College’s mission and identity, reflected in our Great Commitments and the Labor Program. At the same time, leisure – rest and play – is equally important to our physical wellbeing, mental health, and intellectual and emotional development as individuals. Labor and leisure are often intertwined in our lives and are yet another instance of the human experience in which boundaries are blurred. As the artworks and objects in this section show, the tasks we perform and objects we use for “work” are not always that far removed from the things we make and do for “fun.” How do labor and leisure overlap in your life?
Kinship & Care
How do we care for one another? Do the objects we surround ourselves with play a role in our relationships? Can art and material culture reflect the deep personal connections that people share or contribute to emotional caretaking and familial practices?
Artists and makers throughout history have used their work to express love for another person, to document strong family and community ties, and to craft artworks and objects that provide warmth, nourishment, and fulfillment to those that use them. The artworks in this section emphasize kinship, the passing down of traditions from one generation to the next, the shared household, and the creation of community through common belief systems and rituals – and in doing so, these objects have something significant to say about the ways that we seek to connect with other people.
Pattern & Abstraction
What first comes to mind when you think of “pattern”? Like familiar plaid pillows on a much-loved sofa or the orderly stripes of a favorite t-shirt, patterns can be found all around us.
Pattern is often rooted in a formula, a structured system that repeats in predictable and satisfying ways. Abstraction, however, can be more fluid, more surprising, or even seemingly-irrational. Despite these differences, pattern and abstraction have much in common in both art and everyday life. In viewing the abstract and patterned artworks in this section, reconsider your first impressions. What appears like a haphazard arrangement of random shapes and colors might come into focus as a careful display of harmoniously balanced hues, textures, and lines; or you may find that an apparently strict pattern may in fact subvert expectations of uniform rigidity.