As we move across our 2,500-acre campus and the surrounding area, our sensory responses are often first captured by the natural world. We notice the forest of the Proctor Woodlands and Ragged Mountain beyond, the ecotone where forest meets manicured lawn, how our campus transforms with the seasons – even this fall, with drought muting the foliage colors and leaving burnt patches across grassy areas, the beauty of the season remains.
Yet the built environment can provide equal beauty. The Fowler Learning Center, Wilkins Meeting House, the Stone Chapel, and other buildings in the Proctor "village" shape our daily experience. Within many of these buildings hang works of art created by students, members of our professional community, alumni, and visiting artists. We pass them dozens of times each day, often without pausing.
We understand that arts education cultivates creativity, develops self-awareness, and encourages mindfulness – our students experience joy and a sense of agency when they are creating. Physical art on our walls and sculptures in our common spaces provide some of the same benefits when we pause to observe, even for just a few moments. These brief pauses offer something that the hurried pace of boarding school life rarely does – permission to simply observe, reflect, feel something through the art, and find inspiration.
Proctor's Living Art Museum
Since 2017, Art Curator Molly Leith has organized rotating exhibitions and steadily built a permanent collection that now hangs throughout campus buildings. This year's visiting artist series exhibitions feature works by Mexican Indigenous artist Inkpa Mani, nature photographer Marc Beerman, and film photographer Brandon Cabral (coming January 2026), alongside pieces by students, faculty, staff, and alumni spanning three decades, displayed in the Lovejoy Library, Brown Dining Commons, and other public spaces across campus. Our Arts Department faculty also contribute to this living museum, displaying student work each term in the Wilkins Meeting House.
Current Exhibitions: Now Through May 2026
Inkpa Mani (Fowler Learning Center/Lovejoy Library)
Mexican Indigenous artist Inkpa Mani brings 20 works – paintings and collages – in a collection titled "Reclaiming the Ledger: Indigenous Abstraction as Refusal and Revival." Inkpa repurposes ledger paper as a form of reclamation, transforming documents historically used to record displacement and cultural erasure into vibrant assertions of Indigenous identity and resilience.
Also a stone sculptor, Mani will visit campus on November 6th to engage our community in dialogue, meeting with students in Art History and Culture in Conflict classes, and offering an artist reception in the evening. His presence will allow students to understand not just the finished works but the artistic process and the lived experience behind each piece, perhaps finding inspiration for their own work.
Marc Beerman (Brown Dining Commons, Upper Level)
Nature photographer Marc Beerman, who lives in nearby Wilmot, NH, brings approximately 30 photographs to campus. With a former career in finance, Beerman has traveled the world and sat in one location for over six hours to capture a single moment.
His work offers insight into the patience and technical skill required to capture nature at its most fleeting. In an era of instant gratification and endless digital images, Beerman's practice reminds us that meaningful creative work demands time, discipline, and delayed gratification – but the end result is very much worth it.
Learning Skills Collection (Learning Skills Center)
This collection includes student art from alumni dating back to 1992 alongside pieces by current students. Paintings, prints, and enlarged Polaroids document decades of creative expression at Proctor over the last several decades. Walking past these works, alumni might recognize their own hand, remember the assignment, and recall the teacher who pushed them to try something new. Current students see themselves in this continuum, their work displayed alongside pieces by Proctor graduates who may have carried their artistic practice and creativity into their lives after graduating from Proctor.
Coming in January 2026: Brandon Cabral
Cape Verdean artist Brandon Cabral, who lives in New Bedford and works full-time as a parole officer, still finds time for his work as a photographer and artist. Cabral shoots entirely on film using some cameras that date back 70 years. He develops his black-and-white work himself in a home darkroom. He always asks permission before photographing someone, beginning a dialogue – a practice learned from studying Brooklyn street photographer Jamel Shabazz. Part of his distinctive style comes from his use of outdated film, which he sometimes finds in thrift stores, and from techniques like leaving dust on his negatives to give prints a textured, weathered feel. The results are haunting – images that capture real moments yet also possess a dreamlike quality. Cabral is excited to engage with students in our Black and White Photography class during his visit to campus.
Also on Display
Don't forget to look for art in other corners of campus: the art studios, the Meeting House, Upper Maxwell lobby, even the Field House lobby.
For more information about our art exhibits or to arrange a visit, please contact Art Curator Molly Leith.
Learn More about the Arts at Proctor
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