September 19–December 13, 2026
Claire Campbell Park, Resilience, 2023. Linen. © Claire Campbell Park, courtesy of Goya Contemporary.
Presented on the occasion of Scripps College’s centennial, An Artistic Legacy: Scripps at 100 celebrates a century of groundbreaking creative production by the College’s alums and faculty. Curated by alumna Jennie Waldow ’12, curatorial associate and collection specialist at the UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts at the Hammer Museum, the exhibition brings together more than 70 paintings, sculptures, textiles, works on paper, artists’ books, and new media. Featuring both historically significant and emerging artists, An Artistic Legacy is the first comprehensive survey of Scripps’ development as a center for artistic innovation.
Organized around six themes—Regionalism, craft and pattern, graphic art, photography, process-based art, and new media—the exhibition traces how Scripps artists have shaped major artistic movements of the last century. It begins with works from the 1930s and 1940s, when Millard Sheets established the Scripps art department as a key site of Southern California Regionalism. Subsequent sections highlight the College’s central role in the development of experimental ceramics, fiber arts, and design in the postwar period, demonstrating how Scripps artists challenged traditional, often gendered distinctions between fine and applied arts and advanced new approaches to material and form.
The exhibition also foregrounds the contributions of influential faculty such as Samella Lewis, whose teaching expanded the curriculum to include global perspectives and whose own prints and drawings are represented alongside that of her students and contemporaries, including Alison Saar. Additional sections explore the vitality of graphic arts and artist’s books through the Scripps College Press and the work of contemporary faculty and alums. An Artistic Legacy concludes with recent works in photography, sculpture and new media that emphasize experimentation, interdisciplinary practice and new technologies.
“An Artistic Legacy reflects how artistic experimentation has been a constant at Scripps across generations, even as the forms and results of that experimentation have varied,” says Waldow. “This exhibition brings together work by artists who have embodied and shaped the ethos of the arts at Scripps and beyond. Their work exemplifies the diverse ideas, materials, and histories that have defined creative production at the College over the past century.”
Programs
Join the Williamson Gallery for these free, public events presented in conjunction with An Artistic Legacy:
Opening Reception
Saturday, September 19, 2026 | 7–9 PM
Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery
Join us for music and refreshments as we celebrate 100 years of art at Scripps College.
Donor Support
An Artistic Legacy and related programs have been made possible through the generous support of:
The Jean and Arthur Ames Art Fund
The Scripps Fine Arts Foundation