Lia Newman – ACS Grant

The Office of Grants and Contracts congratulates Director and Curator of the Van Every/Smith Galleries, Lia Newman, on a grant from the Associated Colleges of the South (ACS) through the COVID-19 Emergency RFP Round, to provide digital access to the college’s permanent art collection.

The collection includes over 3,900 works by such artists as Rembrandt, Picasso, Matisse, de Kooning, Motherwell, Bearden, Kollwitz, and Hockney, and only a small number are highlighted on the Galleries’ web site. The ACS grant will allow the creation of an expanded online database so that students and faculty who have current needs related to the collection can have access to the artworks.

While the short-term goal is access for courses that are being taught online due to COVID-19, having the expanded permanent art collection online will be a resource to faculty and students both at Davidson and other ACS schools beyond the period of the pandemic.

The Van Every/Smith Galleries play a fundamental role in the pedagogical life of Davidson College and the surrounding community. The Galleries provide a challenging forum for the on-going presentation, interpretation, and discussion of primarily contemporary artworks in all media, nurturing individual thinking, developing visual literacy, and inspiring a lifelong commitment to the arts.