Views of Travel, Reverie, and Repose: Selected East Asian Works from the Swarthmore College Art Collection

Exhibition dates: March 3–April 19, 2026

List Gallery reception:
March 19, 5:30-7:00 PM

The List Gallery is pleased to present Views of Travel, Reverie, and Repose: Selected East Asian Works from the Swarthmore College Art Collection. The exhibition will take place from March 3 through April 19, 2026, concurrently with a presentation of mixed-media works by Philadelphia-based artist Colette Fu.

This exhibition highlights concerns explored by East Asian artists from the early modern period to the twentieth century. Themes depicted include travel and its transformations, the dynamics of the natural world, performance and gendered practices, and the importance of diverse narrative forms, including poems, commentaries, folktales, and legends. Together, the works encourage viewers to embark on imaginative journeys that offer space for reverie, repose, and reflection. They also offer opportunities to think critically about the way societies construct and aestheticize class and gender.

Views of Travel, Reverie, and Repose is the first exhibition featuring works from the College Art Collection since 2023, when the Swarthmore established staff positions dedicated to improving the management, development and curricular use of the Collection. The exhibition was co-curated by Andrea Packard, the inaugural director, Sara Hesdon Buehler, Art Collection Manager, and Susan Eberhard, Visiting Assistant Professor, Art History. 

 The close collaboration between the program in Art History, College Art Collection, and List Gallery is providing both curricular and extracurricular learning opportunities and work study employment for students, who helped research collection works and plan for the exhibition.  Funding was provided by the Art History Program’s Lee Frank Fund, the Ann Trimble Warren ’38 Exhibition Endowment, and the List Gallery Donors’ Fund.