The Dorrance H. Hamilton Gallery and Salve Regina’s Department of Art and Art History are pleased to announce the opening of “Creatures of Imagination: The Nature Cabinet,” an exhibition of artwork created by the Salve Regina community and accompanied by select specimens from the Nature Cabinet. The exhibition will run from Thursday, Oct. 21, through Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021. The Salve Regina community, as well as the public, are invited to experience this exhibition in person at Hamilton Gallery.

There will also be an opening reception for “Creatures of Imagination: The Nature Cabinet” next Thursday, Oct. 21, from 5-7 p.m.

With the generous support of an Antone Academic Excellence Award for Special Projects in 2017, a team of faculty and student collaborators within the Department of Art and Art History developed the Nature Cabinet — a public collection of taxidermy, skulls, fossils, coral, books and natural forms permanently housed in Antone Academic Center, Room 101. For additional information about this resource, please visit the Nature Cabinet’s website.

“The exhibition ‘Creatures of Imagination: The Nature Cabinet’ was delayed due to the pandemic and the restrictions it imposed on our programming,” explained Ernest Jolicoeur, associate professor and director of the Hamilton Gallery. “This show celebrates an array of creative work and collaborations between faculty and students, some of which date back five years.”

“Creatures of Imagination: The Nature Cabinet” transforms the Hamilton Gallery into an enlivened cabinet of curiosities. It offers visitors a glimpse into the Nature Cabinet, and the exhibition will also celebrate the public launch of the digital humanities project cataloguing the Nature Cabinet’s objects into an online archive.

The Nature Cabinet, which students and faculty have been collecting for years, is located in Antone Academic Center.

Each object from the Nature Cabinet has also been catalogued on a website as an online resource tool. 

“We now have some fantastic specimens to share,” said Jolicoeur. “Our taxidermy collection includes a porcupine, bobcat, badger, fox, turkey and skunk. We also have a large variety of coral and skulls of all kinds, including an impressive alligator skull.”

For this exhibition at the Hamilton Gallery, a diverse range of student creative work and natural forms from the Nature Cabinet collection are showcased together for the first time. It features a full spectrum of media from drawing, painting and graphic design to photography, ceramics and web design.

Through these juxtapositions, “Creatures of Imagination” celebrates the continued use and promise of this invaluable and ever-evolving resource. This exhibition highlights the scope of the Nature Cabinet’s impact on learning and growth at Salve Regina.

“Creature of Imagination” captures the scope of how the Nature Cabinet’s collection of nature specimens has creatively inspired students in a variety of ways.

This show was curated by Susannah Strong, associate professor of art and art history, Dr. Anthony Mangieri, chair of the art and art history department, and Jolicoeur.

“The Art and Art History Department is most proud of the collaborative spirit that helped to create the Nature Cabinet, and how this important collection continues to evolve and to provide new opportunities and inspiration for students across the University,” said Dr. Mangieri. “The Nature Cabinet’s online database is an important digital humanities project that opens up new pathways for research and learning and makes our collections available to the world.”

The Dorrance H. Hamilton Gallery is located in the Antone Academic Center on the campus of Salve Regina. It is handicap accessible with parking along Lawrence Avenue and Leroy Avenue. Its exhibits are open Tuesdays through Thursdays 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Wednesdays and Fridays from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The gallery is closed on weekends and Mondays. Masks are required upon entry.

The Department of Music, Theatre and Dance is proud to announce that Mainstage, the theatre program’s official performing company, will be offering its first public performance since the start of the pandemic. All members of Salve Regina’s community, as well as the public, are invited to attend.

Mainstage will be putting on “Spoon River Anthology,” which will run Thursday, Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, Oct. 22, at 8 p.m.; and Saturday, Oct. 23, at 8 p.m. “Spoon River Anthology” is a collection of monologues from the deceased citizens of a small town written by Edgar Lee Masters. In the spirit of October and Halloween, the ghostly monologues will be performed outdoors in three different “graveyards” simultaneously around the lawn of Gerety Hall.

“There’s a whole graveyard scene that takes place in somebody’s home, and those are all monologues about marriage and raising children right,” described Dr. Tara Brooke Watkins, assistant professor of theatre and the director of the show. “The next station is a school yard or church yard, and those are all monologues about growing up, following or losing your dreams, or listening to preachers and teachers and what that does to your life. The third graveyard we’ve placed in the brothel, and those monologues are about people who are struggling with the brutalities of life.”

Audience members will move around to each graveyard as the evening progresses. The show is free and open to the public, and no reservations are required. Audience members should meet at the gate at the corner of Leroy Avenue and Ochre Point Avenue to gather before the start of the show, and they will then be directed to the outdoors area of the performance. Please arrive at least 15 minutes early. Some seating will be available, but comfortable outdoor chairs and comfortable walking shoes are recommended. “Spoon River Anthology” will run just under two hours with short breaks throughout.

Ghosts from “Spoon River Anthology” will haunt Salve Regina’s outdoor campus this weekend.

While “Spoon River Anthology” doesn’t have a full narrative arc, a lot of the monologues mention each other, according to Dr. Watkins. If they want to, audience members can listen and piece together story lines and relationships between the ghosts as the show progresses.

“These characters are coming back from the grave to say one thing,” explained Dr. Watkins. “Some of them are finally getting something off their chest, and other people are expressing how beautiful life is, expressing loves that they couldn’t express why they were alive.”

Salve Regina students involved in “Spoon River Anthology” are excited to be part of the show. There are 18 cast members, and each one will be playing multiple roles throughout the show while performing 4-5 monologues each.

Skylar Lasit ’22

“This is the first opportunity the Salve theatre program has had in over a year to perform without masks on,” said Skylar Lasit ’22, a theatre major with concentrations in acting and technical. “It’s a theatrical experience like no other, and it feels incredible to be doing what I love again with a group of talented and wonderful people. Tara’s vision is truly something special, and I feel honored and grateful to be a part of it.”

William (Liam) Fryer ’23, a theatre arts major, also echoed this excitement, and he loved the fact that the show will be outside—something that is rare at Salve Regina. “There is an incredible feeling that comes with telling these stories in the dark among the trees,” Fryer said. “It’s like when you would gather around a campfire and tell ghost stories. Now nature plays a role in our storytelling, too, which is very cool.”

“It feels like such a great way to get back into real theatre,” concluded Ashleigh DeAmicis ’23, who is double majoring in theatre and psychology. “With the pandemic, we’ve had to find a lot of ways to do shows without an audience. This show, however, is such an intimate experience. We get to sit with the audience, look them in the eyes and share these stories. I imagine it’s going to be an extremely cathartic experience for everyone involved.”

William (Liam) Fryer ’23

Ashleigh DeAmicis ’23

Mainstage will perform “Spoon River Anthology” on Thursday, Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, Oct. 22, at 8 p.m.; and Saturday, Oct. 23, at 8 p.m. The gate at the corner of Leroy Avenue and Ochre Point Avenue is the gathering place for the start of the show, so audience members are asked to arrive at least 15 minutes early. The show is free and open to the public, and no reservations are required. Some seating will be available, but comfortable outdoor chairs and comfortable walking shoes are recommended.