BELONGING
In 2026, the United States of America celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Leading up to this milestone, The Jule’s exhibitions across the 2025–2026 academic year are centered on questions of belonging in American art. We invite our curious visitors to explore our galleries and consider how exhibiting artists grapple with a sense of belonging, within neighborhoods and across states and oceans, in a country known as the world’s melting pot.
Being and Belonging in American Art: 1946 / 2026
August 19, 2025 – July 5, 2026
Grand Gallery
Guest curator Elizabeth S. Hawley, PhD considers the history of American art through the collection at Auburn University. Pairing contemporary works with iconic Advancing American Art paintings, this exhibition encourages visitors to ask what “being” and “belonging” in American art might mean in the past, the present and the future.
Radical Naturalism: Lyric Birdscapes
August 19, 2025 – July 5, 2026
Louise Hauss and David Brent Miller Audubon
Galleries
Acclaimed poet Nicole Sealey will engage faculty, students and the Auburn community as a poet-inresidence at The Jule. Working with Auburn’s collection by the 19th century naturalist John James Audubon, Sealey will marry language and art by pairing works from Audubon’s monumental The Birds of America with both contemporary and historical poetic responses, inviting visitors to question the symbolic and cultural meanings we ascribe to the natural world.
▲ TOP PANEL LEFT TO RIGHT: Radcliffe Bailey (American, 1968–2023), Tobacco Blues, 2000, edition: A/P 9, aquatint and multiple print techniques; Gift of Lynn Barstis Williams to the Imprinting the South Collection. John James Audubon (French American, b. Haiti, 1785–1851), Barn Swallow (cutout detail), Plate CLXXIII, The Birds of America, first edition, Vol. II, 1833, hand-colored etching, aquatint and line engraving, printed by R. Havell and Son, London, 1827–38; The Louise Hauss and David Brent Miller Audubon Collection.
▶ MIDDLE PANEL LEFT TO RIGHT: Grace Hartigan (1922–2008), Sweden, 1959, Oil on linen, 83 7/8 x 87 7/8 in, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Guy A. Weill © Rex R. Stevens. Generously lent by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York as part of the Art Bridges' Partner Loan Network. Binh Danh (Vietnamese American, b. 1977), Untitled #4 (cutout detail), 2009, from the Immortality: The Remnants of the Vietnam and American War series, chlorophyll print and resin.
Women Artists in Ascendance
August 19, 2025 – July 5, 2026
Bill L. Harbert Gallery
Featuring objects on loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art, Women Artists in Ascendance pulls back the curtain on the story of modern American art by displaying works from a dozen women artists who were goliaths in their own right, including Lee Krasner, Helen Frankenthaler and Grace Hartigan. Organized in partnership with Art Bridges.
Binh Danh: Advancing
American Art
August 19 – December 7, 2025
Noel and Kathryn Dickinson Wadsworth and Chi Omega-Hargis
Galleries
Binh Danh explores his Vietnamese heritage, landscapes and memory through experimental and vintage photography techniques. Chlorophyll prints of the past and daguerreotypes of the present blur the line between history and the now, examining a transformation of American identity.
Foreign in a Domestic Sense
August 19 – December 7, 2026
Gallery C
Artists Natalia Lassalle-Morillo and Sofía Gallisá Muriente gather testimonies and imaginaries of Puerto Ricans who migrated to Central Florida following 2017’s Hurricane Maria. This immersive, four-channel video installation layers fictional and non-fictional narratives, speculating about how community is created anew. The title, Foreign in a Domestic Sense , comes from the 1901 Supreme Court case in which a justice described the island nation as “unincorporated territory” of the U.S.
FEATURED
EVENTS · free and open to the public
DROP-IN TOURS
Tuesdays through Saturdays | 5 p.m.
What sparks your curiosity? Make a date with student guides and staff for a closer look.
ARTIST TALK: BINH DANH
September 18, 2025 | 5 p.m.
Binh Danh discusses his work and process with Krystle Stricklin, Assistant Curator of Photography of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
AUBURN WITNESS POETRY PRIZE
October 23, 2025 | 5 p.m.
Poet-in-Residence Nicole Sealey presents this prestigious annual poetry award to Hana Widerman at a joint reading in partnership with the Southern Humanities Review .
BOOK TALK: ALEXANDER NEMEROV
November 13, 2025 | 5 p.m.
Author of Fierce Poise: Helen Frankenthaler and 1950s New York Alexander Nemerov joins The Jule to discover more behind the artists in Women Artists in Ascendance.
▶ BOTTOM PANEL LEFT TO RIGHT: Sofía Gallisá Muriente and Natalia Lassalle-Morillo, Foreign in a Domestic Sense (still shot), 2021, four-channel video installation, 4k, Hi8 and HD video, hand developed Super8 film Spanish and English subtitles, stereo sound, 32 min. A student guide gives a tour to visiting museum directors from across the Southeast.
SUPPORT OUR GREATEST NEED
The Jule elevates the Auburn Experience through dynamic exhibitions and engaging programs, all made possible through the Auburn Family’s generosity at every level. Your donations increase academic growth, research efforts and meaningful service to the state—all at the heart of the Auburn University mission. Gifts to The Jule directly impact every museum initiative—from bringing major artwork from world-class institutions directly to campus to providing talks with contemporary artists—keeping art and art education free and accessible for everyone.
Will you help us provide opportunities for students and communities across the region and state? Consider supporting our greatest need today at aub.ie/supportjule or email juledev@auburn.edu to learn more about the arts at Auburn.
Simone Forti (American, b. 1935), Solo No. 1, 1974, video (black and white, sound), 18:40 min. Museum purchase with funds provided by TenSeventyTwo - A Campaign for Collecting and Conserving Art. This latest purchase for the university art collection develops our video holdings.