Cantor Art Gallery Exhibitions
At Holy Cross, art is woven into the fabric of student life.
Exhibitions are carefully selected to complement our academic programs, sparking new perspectives and conversations that continue beyond the gallery walls.
Upcoming Exhibitions
Plan Your Next Visit
Queens, Gods, and Devotees: Selections from the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art
August 25-November 24, 2026
Featuring over 30 paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints, and fiber works from c. 1900 to the present, Queens, Gods, and Devotees foregrounds earthly and divine greatness, and their associated devotional objects and ritual practices. Many of these images of exalted figures and concepts related to spirituality and worship are specific to the Black American experience, or are re-imagined in a Black cultural context. References to Greek mythology, the Judeo-Christian tradition, ancient cultures, and traditional African spiritual practices appear alongside one another.
The exhibition includes work by celebrated artists including Romare Bearden, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Richmond Barthé, John Biggers, Willie Cole, Shinique Smith, Tawny Chatmon, Imo Nse Imeh, and Sharif Bey, among others. Selections in Queens, Gods, and Devotees are drawn entirely from the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art. The PFF Collection is a targeted initiative to bring focus to the full range of African American visual creativity and its essential place in the history and discourse of American Art. As part of a growing and thoughtful dialogue about the African American experience through art, the PFF Collection seeks to visually represent a cross-section of themes that speak not only to the African American community, but also the broader American community. Curated by Susanna W. Gold, Ph.D.
EVENTS
Opening Reception | Thursday, September 17 | 5:30 p.m. | Cantor Art Gallery
Artist Talk: Imo Nse Imeh | Thursday, October 1 | 4:30 p.m. | Rehm Library
Organized by The McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics, and Culture
Past Exhibitions
La Machina de los Sueños
June 16-July 31, 2026
La Machina de los Sueños is the second in a series of annual summer exhibitions that foregrounds and celebrates the Worcester arts community at the Cantor Art Gallery. Guest curators Vanessa Calixto and John Vo have assembled artists connected to the Worcester-based organization El Salón, a collective of BIPOC creatives working together through a "by us, for us" model. Featured artists include Sharon Amuguni, George Annan, Jennessa Burks, Vanessa Calixto, Claudio Eshun, Liza French, Ivory Henry, Kappokraft, Julian Cintron Pabon, Savonne Pickett, Angel Rojas, Ryan Smith, Gyani Pradhan Wong Ah Sui, Sharinna Travieso, Bruja the Villain, John Vo, and Hank von Hellion.
EVENTS
Opening Reception | Friday, June 12 | 6-8 p.m.
Artist Talks | Thursday, July 16 | 5:30 – 7 p.m.
Please join us for extended hours at the Cantor Art Gallery for a chance to hear from some of your favorite local artists. Several creatives from El Salón, whose work is on display in La Machina de los Sueños, will be sharing their inspirations, motivations, and the processes that go into creating their works.
Participating artists: Sharon Amuguni, George Annan, Jennessa Burks, Claudio Eshun, Liza French, Kappokraft, Angel Rojas, Ryan Smith, Sharinna Travieso
Free and open to the public; refreshments will be provided!
Artist Peer Review Session at the Gallery | Friday, July 24 | 5:30 p.m.
Join us as exhibiting artists from La Machina de los Sueños, as well as community artists in attendance, share and connect around their artistic practices, discuss the pieces they are working on and collect overall peer support in a roundtable format.
If you are an artist, you are invited to participate! Bring some works from your portfolio for feedback from your peers. Light refreshments will be provided.
Free entry, open to all.
The Vietnamese Áo Dài in a Time of War: Fashion, Citizenship, and Nationalism (1954–1975)
August 26-December 19, 2025
The Vietnamese Áo Dài in a Time of War explores the significance of Vietnam’s national costume—the áo dài—during the Vietnam War. Honoring the 50th anniversary of a conflict, the legacies of which continue to haunt us to this day, the exhibition highlights the contributions of Vietnamese women to politics, society, and culture. Artifacts trace the history of the áo dài as a practical item of clothing and important symbol of Vietnamese heritage and identity in Vietnam, among Vietnamese Americans, and on the global stage—thus showing how a national costume can be both traditional and modern fashion with meanings that change over time and space. Co-curated by Professors Ann Marie Leshkowich (Anthropology, College of the Holy Cross), Martina Nguyen (History, Baruch College, City University of New York), and Tuong Vu (Political Science, University of Oregon).
(The Saturday Evening Post cover photo by Burt Glinn © SEPS licensed by Curtis Licensing Indianapolis, IN.)
Scenes from The Cantor Art Gallery
"Ritual and Devotion" is Sneha Shrestha's first major solo exhibition which explores the concepts of ritual and devotion beyond the sacred to include the secular.
“Dharma and Punya: Buddhist Ritual Art of Nepal” displays nearly one hundred objects of Buddhist ritual art, many rarely seen in the West.
The work of graduating senior visual arts studio majors showcase their work in "Fine Art: Senior Concentration Seminar Exhibition" from April 26 - May 25, 2018.
An immersive and visually complex exhibition, “Club Disminución” draws upon Horochowski’s versatility as an artist, as she mixes a range of media to create a vibrant installation environment.
From the exhibition “Gabrielle Thierry: The Musicality of the Water Lilies/La Musicalité des Nymphéas” that ran from Aug. 30 through Oct. 7, 2017. Thierry’s series of eight large-scale paintings were inspired by her rediscovery of the “Water Lilies” landscapes by Claude Monet on view at the the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris.
“In Process: Contemporary Photographers Rethinking Their Medium From the Collection of Mark D. Nevins ‘86” presents the work of 22 contemporary photographers who are exploring the medium and technologies of photography in a diversity of ways.
Graduating visual arts students who have participated in the year-long Senior Concentration Seminar present their work in “Amalgam” from April 28 - May 27, 2016.
