October 30, 2024

At the Wellin Museum we celebrate the new year twice, or sometimes three times. On January 1st with everyone else, and in the fall (and sometimes the spring) when our new exhibition opens to the public. This year, our exhibition is on view from September 7 until June 8, so we celebrated the Wellin New Year in September. The museum bustles with the sounds of curiosity, casual conversations, and the squeals emitted by seeing familiar faces. We have the privilege of being graced with the presence of our returning docents, faculty, museum staff, local students, and visitors from near and far to celebrate a new display of art. 

With the Wellin New Year comes new programming, as our exhibitions are always a catalyst for brand new ideas and collaborations. There is no wasting the last of our hot summer days in Clinton, so of course to get the events rolling we invited the youngest of our attendees to decorate Selch Terrace in chalk of all colors, and the occasional drops of chocolate gelato (it was the first flavor to go), at our annual Ice Cream and Chalk Party. Our next sunny Terrace day, we hosted the first student event of the semester, an Open Studio session exploring wet felting, because there’s nothing better than some cool wet felting on a hot fall day. We also welcomed artist Alexa Hatanaka, whose work in the Wellin collection Koinobori (eggs in the belly) is on view in Menagerie, to give a public gallery talk and to share the practice of gyotaku, or fish printmaking, with Hamilton students.

As the summer heat leaves and we embrace the cold, the Wellin continues to bring warmth to our campus. This warmth manifests itself as bringing everyone together to learn and enjoy activities. Our student events range from being inspired by the exhibit, to exhibit-themed spin-offs of our classics, like the upcoming Hallowellin. Wellin Kids events allow children from the nearby area to come and create their own works of art with no experience necessary. Class visits across a variety of disciplines leave us with either more questions or more perspective than before, and sometimes both. Also, I can’t forget to mention the joys of seeing big yellow school buses unload curious school students from the surrounding community.

The Wellin New Year also means new opportunities to engage with the different communities on our campus. Though that has always meant reaching out to different clubs in hopes of collaborating on events, this semester we decided to try something new. This year, we created our first student-run Instagram account for the museum, in hopes of making our student events more accessible. We have a lot of fun posts planned and we’re hoping that this account becomes one of the first places students look when trying to figure out if there’s anything fun to do.

I appreciate the role student events play in community activities and creating communal art. The student education assistants are looking forward to student participation in upcoming events like the LGBTQ+ History Month Art Walk and Wellin-themed trivia in collaboration with Pub Trivia. The Wellin events help us seem more familiar to each other and give us things in common. I hope that the student events this semester are successful at doing the same.