The 2026 Faculty Exhibition is located in Lord Hall and is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m, Monday through Friday.
Associate Professor of Art and Director of Galleries Diana Baumbach gave information to the Maine Campus about this exhibition via email.
“The 2026 Faculty Exhibition contains work by seven artists who teach in the Department of Art and the graduate IMFA Program … The exhibition contains painting, installation, sculpture, mixed media, photography, textiles, and drawing.” said Baumbach.
Baumbach is one of the seven artists featured in the current gallery at Lord Hall. On display are a variety of her works, ranging from crafted items to photos.
“I make textile objects that relate to the body. Some of my objects are wearable costumes or props, while others look to the body for raw materials (human hair, worn clothing). A few years ago, I started taking photographs of me wearing the objects that I create. I display those photographs alongside my textile objects. Some of my artwork contains both photographs and unique objects combined together,” said Baumbach.
Her work has been in exhibits and galleries since the summer of 1996, where one of Baumbach’s pieces was selected to be in a local gallery outside of Chicago. Since then, she has been a part of many galleries, both as an artist and organizer.
“I’ve been working in the field since I was an undergraduate student in the early 2000s, so I’ve been involved in many exhibitions. I’ve worked in academic galleries and museums, in non-profit galleries, and have run alternative spaces,” said Baumbach.
She stepped into the role of Director of Galleries in 2022, and ever since has been working in collaboration with other faculty and artists to bring many events to campus – both traditional and new.
“I’m particularly excited about collaborations with non-artists. I collaborated with Rebecca DeWan in the Music Department to host the Collegiate Chorale into the Gallery for an interactive performance. I collaborated with Hollie Adams in the English Department to invite professional Maine-based writers to write poems about the artwork on view. We held a reading in the gallery and mounted their poems on the wall. Currently, I am collaborating with Zac Pelleriti, a local yoga instructor and archeologist to present wellness programming [yoga, pranayama, slow looking, and meditation] in the gallery,” said Baumbach.
The Faculty Exhibition will stop showing after spring break, but there are more events at Lord Hall in the future. The Student Exhibition begins on April 6 and goes until the first of May. The gallery is a great opportunity to see artwork that students have been working on diligently and have been selected for display.
“I invite a guest juror to make selections for each Student Exhibition. The juror changes every year … I encourage the juror to select submissions that reflect the range of disciplines in our program, and I provide guidance in terms of the quantity of artwork to select,” said Baumbach.
The selections for the Student Exhibition have not started, but with the event being around the corner, Baumbach is excited to see what’s in store.
“That’s one of the greatest things about the exhibition, it’s always a surprise.”
