A special place: Exhibitions, art, & spaces

UVA has six library locations, each with unique places to study, learn, and create. These stories highlight exhibitions, installations, and collections that make our libraries so special.
UVA has six library locations, each with unique places to study, learn, and create. These stories highlight exhibitions, installations, and collections that make our libraries so special.
Simple illustration of a hand wearing a watch and writing with a pen. The illustration appears within an irregular white shape on a teal background and is encircled by an irregular line that is a lighter shade of the same teal.

Through a Harlem Renaissance poet’s garden, and into her work and life

“Anne Spencer: I Am Here!” — an exhibition in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library’s Main Gallery from October 2024 to June 2025 — shed light on an often-overlooked Harlem Renaissance poet, teacher, and librarian.

Simple illustration featuring the Tibetan script in black font. The script’s English translation is “Tibetan Collection.” The illustration appears within an irregular white shape on a teal background and is encircled by an irregular line that is a lighter shade of the same teal.

Rehousing a vital collection for Tibetan Buddhism

The University of Virginia has long stood out as a center for Buddhist Studies in North America, including boasting a world-renowned teaching and research program in Tibetan Buddhism at the master’s and doctoral level. That program is supported by the Library’s Tibetan Collection, one of the most complete in the world. 

Simple illustration of a telescope on a stand. The illustration appears within an irregular white shape on a teal background and is encircled by an irregular line that is a lighter shade of the same teal.

Early observatories, modernism, a bicentennial celebration, and “the greatest remaining private collection” of its kind

Curator of University Library Exhibitions Holly Robertson, Exhibitions Coordinator Jacquelyn Kim, and curators in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library and Mary and David Harrison Institute for American History, Literature, and Culture were busy over the last academic year.

Simple illustration of an artist’s palette. The illustration appears within an irregular white shape on a teal background and is encircled by an irregular line that is a lighter shade of the same teal.

‘Free to Be’: Shannon art installation investigates our shared Charlottesville landscape

On the second floor of the Edgar Shannon Library, two massive mixed-media collages hanging side by side catch the attention of passersby. The art installation, titled “Free to Be, a Collective Virginia Landscape,” is the work of Maria Villanueva, an Assistant Professor of Art who arrived at UVA in 2024.

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