Fall exhibitions

St. John’s College announces the Elizabeth Myers Mitchell Art Museum’s latest exhibitions, THE SPEED OF TIME: Film/Video Art in the US, 1965–1980 and Librería Donceles: A Project by Pablo Helguera.”

“These exhibitions are fundamentally about rethinking the relationship between art and the viewer,” says Peter Nesbett, Director of the Mitchell Art Museum. “They ask, ‘What is our obligation to an artwork?’ and ‘Do we have to fully comply with the artist’s intentions to fully experience the work?’” 

“THE SPEED OF TIME” features pioneering video and film art and runs October 14 through December 10, 2023. In the 1960s, happenings, minimalism, and performance art introduced the concept of time into visual art. But it wasn’t until artists started experimenting with technology, using such tools as computers, Kodak Super 8 cameras, and Sony Portapak video cameras, that time was inscribed as a new dimension, appearing in lieu of inches on museum labels. This exhibition unites work by seven artists who experimented with the elastic, symbolic, emotional, and social aspects of this ever-elusive subject. To view this exhibition in its entirety would require 98 minutes and 58 seconds of continuous attention. The artists are Vito Acconci, Eleanor Antin, Barbara Hammer, Gary Hill, Joan Jonas, Gordon Matta-Clark, and Nam June Paik. 

Librería Donceles is an installation takes the form of a used bookstore crammed with a world’s worth of Spanish-language titles. Artist Pablo Helguera created Librería Donceles in Brooklyn ten years ago to serve the growing Hispanic and Latinx communities in New York. Since then, the bookstore has traveled to more than a dozen cities, becoming a vibrant hub of activity in each. Visitors can peruse and purchase the titles on a pay-what-you-wish basis, immerse themselves in artworks, tchotchkes and decorations, attend readings, screenings, and performances, or just hang out. The Mitchell Art Museum is playing host to Librería Donceles until 2024. A tenth birthday party celebration—with performances, video tributes, a lecture, and a birthday cake—is scheduled for Saturday, December 9, 2023. 

For more information on exhibits and programming, visit here or follow @sjcmitchell on Facebook and Instagram. 

Visiting the Museum: The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, 1–6pm, and until 7:30pm on Fridays. Exhibitions are always free and wheelchair accessible. Parking is available on weekends in the Calvert Street Garage (one block away), at 19 St. John’s Street, and during the week at the Gott’s Court Garage (two-and-a-half blocks away) at 25 Calvert Street. 

About the Mitchell Art Museum
Located in Mellon Hall on the St. John’s College campus in historic downtown Annapolis, the Elizabeth Myers Mitchell Art Museum complements the school’s distinctive learning culture by asking persistent questions about the human experience through art and with extraordinary artists. It is the only visual art museum in Anne Arundel County accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, and one of only five to be accredited in the state of Maryland.   

About St. John’s College
St. John’s College is the most distinctive liberal arts college in the country due to our interdisciplinary program, in which 200 of the most revolutionary great books from across 3,000 years of human thought are explored in student-driven, discussion-based classes. By probing world-changing ideas in literature, philosophy, mathematics, science, music, history, and more, students leave St. John’s with a foundation for success in such fields as law, government, research, STEM, media, and education. Located on two campuses in two historic state capitals—Annapolis, Maryland, and Santa Fe, New Mexico—St. John’s is the third-oldest college in the United States and has been hailed as the “most forward-thinking, future-proof college in America” by Quartz and as a “high-achieving angel hovering over the landscape of American higher education” by the Los Angeles Times. Learn more at sjc.edu.