Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Hours

Monday-Friday: 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Saturday: 1-3 p.m.
Or by appointment, call (315) 781-3487

For more information, please call (315) 781-3487 or email davisgallery@hws.edu.

davis gallery at houghton house

Named in recognition of the generosity of Clarence A. (Dave) Davis, Jr. '48, the Davis Gallery is an academic resource of Hobart and William Smith Colleges. The Davis Gallery at Houghton House is the exhibition space of the Department of Art and Architecture. The Gallery has six shows each year beginning with a faculty exhibition and ending the year with a student exhibition. In between, a variety of artists and architects are invited to show their work and an exhibition from the Collections of Hobart and William Smith Colleges is staged. The mission of the Gallery is to exhibit, and make accessible works of art in support of the educational goals of the Colleges and for the benefit of the community at large. The Davis Gallery is primarily a space to immerse Hobart and William Smith College students in visual culture by providing an environment for studying the role of art and architecture in shaping, embodying and interpreting cultures.

2026-2027 Exhibitions

Fall 2026

Dialogues:The Art & Architecture Faculty Featuring the HWS Art Collection

September 10 – October 3, 2026 | Davis Gallery
Reception: September 10 | 5-7 p.m.

The Davis Gallery continues the annual tradition of opening the academic year with an exhibition of artworks by faculty in the Department of Art and Architecture. This year each artist has been invited to select an artwork from the HWS Art Collection to pair with their own. Artists may look for artworks that inspire them, visually complement their own or speak to similar themes. Through this collaboration, relationships are formed between artists and artworks, and conversations occur across the gallery walls.

Dialogues: The Art and Architecture Faculty Featuring the HWS Art Collection features Professor Christine Chin, Visting Assistant Professor Patrick Kana, Professor Nick Ruth and Professor Phillia Yi.

Image: Christine Chin, Hypercompe scribonia (Giant Leopard Moth in Phytolacca americana,
American pokeweed), Anthotype, 2025.

Celebrating Six Decades of Shaping the Collection

October 8 – November 7, 2026 | Davis Gallery
Reception: October 8 | 5 - 7 p.m.

The Hobart and William Smith Art Collection was initiated by a member of the Board of Trustees when they gifted a Karel Appel painting to the institution in 1970. In an August 1971 article the Hobart Quarterly referred to it as “The Houghton House Arts Center” and wrote, “it is the trustee’s hope that other Alumni, Alumnae and friends of the Colleges will make gifts to the collection.” In the following years, many generous individuals did just that and HWS gradually built a valuable resource to be used in campus classrooms and gallery spaces.

Celebrating Six Decades of Shaping the Collection highlights the people who have supported the growth of the Hobart and William Smith Art Collection through their generous gifts.

Image: Karel Appel (Dutch, 1925-2006), Homme à la Cravate, 1969, acrylic on paper. Gift of an anonymous donor, Collection of Hobart and William Smith.

Activating the Static: Depicting Motion in Art

November 19 – December 18, 2026
Opening reception: November 19 | 5 - 7 p.m.

There is an undeniable challenge presented to an artist when they desire to illustrate motion with a static medium. To express movement in a painting, print, drawing or sculpture often requires manipulating elements such as line, color and texture, and utilizing repetition and different brushstrokes. Through these techniques artists can make ocean waves crash, a woman’s dress twirl around her body, horses gallop, smoke billow and birds fly through the sky.

Activating the Static: Depicting Motion in Art examines artworks that appear to be moving, while technically still, through techniques used by artists to create illusions that insinuate active motion.

Zeng Shanqing (b. Beijing, 1932-2020), Four Horsemen, 1978, ink on paper. Collection of Hobart and William Smith.

Spring 2027

The Art of Daily Observation

January 28 – February 20, 2027 | Davis Gallery
Reception: January 28 | 5 - 7 p.m.

“The everyday is the inaccessible to which we have always already had access.” – Maurice Blanchot, ‘Everyday Speech’, 1959.

From the people walking towards you on the sidewalk and the manhole cover on the street next to you, the clouds and airplanes above your head, the architecture of the nearby buildings and the flowers blooming in their gardens — what do you truly observe in your everyday travels? The Art of Daily Observation investigates whether art can change one’s perspective by initiating a shift in how people notice and appreciate the world around them.

Image: Howard Kanovitz (American, 1929-2009), Windmill Antilles, 1980, lithograph on paper. Gift of Kenneth L. Halsband ’88, Collection of Hobart and William Smith.

The Curatorial Project: A Student Curated Exhibition

March 3 – April 10, 2027 | Davis Gallery
Reception: March 3 | 5 - 7 p.m.

How does a curator select a theme for an exhibition and narrow down which objects to include? What research needs to be conducted for an exhibition? How does a curator choose which information to put on a wall label? Which design elements enhance the visitor experience? What are the techniques to safely handle art? Which methods of installing objects are best?

These are questions that the students in CMST 380/480: The Curatorial Project will be able to answer at the end of the Spring 2027 semester. By researching how exhibitions shape our understanding of art and culture and curating an exhibition in the Davis Gallery with objects from the Hobart and William Smith Art Collection, students will bridge the gap between academic theory and professional practice.

Student Art Exhibition

April 22 – May 16, 2027 | Davis and Solarium Galleries
Reception: April 22 | 5 - 7 p.m.