As a land-grant university, the University of Connecticut has a long history of acquiring and preserving garments and textiles pertinent to the history of the State of Connecticut. Since 1898, when the Home Economics Department was created, many talented professors and students have worked to amass over 8,000 items, 3,500 of which are garments, making the University's Historical Clothing and Textile Collection the largest such study collection in New England.... More

Classical mythology has a long relationship with the visual arts, but the representation of myth in painting, sculpture, and print is never simple illustration. The collection of stories and characters that we know from the poetry of classical writers like Virgil, Ovid, and Homer were once the components of the ancient Greek and Roman religion. Early representations of deities stood larger than life in temples as the physical manifestation of the divine presence. Removed from a pagan context in the Middle Ages, classical mythology fueled the imagination of later artists who often conflated classical subject matter with classical style. Even after the taste for classical proportions and for academic art was upset by subsequent artistic movements in the 19th century, classical mythology continued to provide rich thematic material for generations of artists. ... More

The works chosen for this exhibition fall into thematic groupings that reflect the strengths in the Benton’s collections and relate to a variety of programs on the spring schedule... More

In concert with the School of Fine Arts’ digital media initiatives and the debut of the interdisciplinary Digital Media Center early last year, the Benton presents an exhibition focused on the social and creative impact of digital media’s most ubiquitous arena: the Internet. From the development of the largely text-based and specialized World Wide Web of the 1990s through to the highly visual, user-generated Web 2.0 of the past decade, artists have continuously found inspiration in the form, context, and material of the Internet for their art practice.... More

The year 2011 marks the 50th anniversary of the School of Fine Arts and, while the Benton did not become a part of the School until 1997, it is a part of the history of the School. Since 1967 the Museum has hosted the annual art department faculty exhibition. In celebration of the 50th anniversary, the Museum is proud to present a visual time capsule of the Art Department from 1961 to 2001. Emeriti faculty from every decade and from all across the country will exhibit work created during their time at the University... More

The Benton is pleased to present an exhilarating exhibition of works by the MFA degree candidates in the Class of 2012: David Cool (video/installation / new media); Yelizaveta Masalimova (mixed media / sculptor and printmaker); Alyssa Matthews (painter); David Sinaguglia (sculpture and multimedia); and Heather Stamenov (painter). ... More