Dear Friends,

Earlier this month I visited Niagara University where the Castellani Art Museum is presenting a major retrospective exhibition Dorothy Gillespie: Works from the Radford University Collection March 19-November, 2022. Below are photos taken at the "Opening Reception."

This exhibition, organized by the Radford University Art Museum in Virginia, features 21 major works spanning Gillespie's career from the 1940's through the 1990s, accompanied by her work in our own permanent collection. Presented in chronological order, it provides a visual timeline of the evolution of Gillespie's signature style, developed in the early 1970's.

Ellen Owens, CAM Director

Michael Beam, CAM Curator

Pictured (l-r): Michael J. Beam, CAM Curator of exhibitions; Ellen Owens, CAM Director;

Gary Israel, President of the Dorothy M. Gillespie Foundation; Tailor Choquette, scholarship recipient; and Marian Granfield, faculty fellow, art history with museum studies.

Tailor Choquette, a junior in Niagara University’s Art History with Museum Studies program, was this year’s recipient of the Dorothy Gillespie Memorial Scholarship, which is awarded annually to a female student in that program. She received her award on May 5, during a reception at the Castellani Art Museum celebrating the Dorothy Gillespie exhibition.

Gillespie has close ties to the Castellani Art Museum. In 1990, on the occasion of the grand opening of the museum on the University campus, she received an honorary Doctorate of Pedagogy ( Education) from Niagara University in recognition of the "ability as an artist, professionalism, business sense... influence and experience to champion the cause of other women artists, and her realization of the artist's important role in society and unrelenting sense of adventure have made her an important figure in the art world."

According to Evan Wright, Community & Academic Engagement Manager of the Castellani Art Museum "The CAM's Teaching artist, Alison Lytle, coordinated a wonderful art activity based on Dorothy's work Royal Crest Remembered piece that we have as a part of the exhibition. It was a very heartfelt activity considering that many of the kid's artworks were given to their mothers for Mothers Day the next day. The kids were also greatly appreciative of their take-home Dorothy Gillespie paper sculpture kits" (See below)