Sustainable Narratives: Visualizing Data, Design, and Community
Penn State University (Assistant Professor of Graphic Design Huiwon Lim & Students)
Exhibition Displayed: April 1 – July 25, 2025
This infographic shows 25 bird species, and each feather shows the number of times a species collided with a window at Penn State University Park in mid-June 2022. Visualizing bird-window collisions helps demonstrate the urgency of protecting local bird populations.
What stories can data tell about our world? How can design shape a more sustainable future?
This Sustainable Narratives exhibit invites viewers to explore these questions through a curated collection of visual works that integrate data, sustainability, and community engagement.
This exhibition, led by Huiwon Lim, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Penn State, presents both solo works as a graphic designer and design educator, as well as collaborative projects with students, offering diverse perspectives on how data can be transformed into powerful narratives.
The showcased projects reflect on pressing global issues—climate change, social equity, and community resilience—while exploring creative solutions through design.
The exhibited works aim to inspire meaningful conversations about our shared responsibility for a sustainable future. By translating complex data into accessible visuals, the exhibition challenges viewers to rethink their relationship with information, environment, and community.
Through data-driven storytelling, we illuminate unseen patterns, foster understanding, and highlight the power of design to drive social impact.
View images from the Sustainable Narratives exhibit.
DVAL Presents…
Delaware Valley Art League
Exhibition Displayed: January 21 – March 14, 2025
This exhibit immersed viewers in a diverse celebration of artistry where creativity knows no boundaries. DVAL Presents… invited guests to explore the unfiltered imagination of artists, each bringing their unique voice and perspective to life through their chosen medium. From delicate watercolor to bold acrylic, this exhibit was a tribute to the power of free expression, where every piece told a story untamed by themes or constraints. Visitors discovered the beauty of spontaneity and the richness of unbridled artistic freedom.
Delaware Valley Art League (DVAL) is an association of professional artists. The Delaware Valley Art League exists to promote interest in the fine arts within the community and to advance the skill and creativity of its membership.
View images from the DVAL Presents exhibit reception.
24 Years of Women in the Arts
The Regional Center for Women in the Arts
Exhibition Displayed: November 12, 2024 – January 5, 2025
The Regional Center for Women in the Arts is dedicated to encouraging and promoting the work of established and emerging women artists. RCWA strives to raise funds for charities that benefit women in need. To that end, RCWA has exhibited work in over 20 venues in the Delaware Valley. This exceptional exhibition highlighted the talent of regional women artists and supported a meaningful cause.
View images from the 24 Years of Women in the Arts exhibit reception.
124th International Exhibition of Works on Paper
Philadelphia Watercolor Society
Exhibition Displayed: September 17 – October 19, 2024
This prestigious exhibit showcased exceptional works on paper from artists worldwide. The exhibition featured a diverse range of styles and techniques, judged by renowned artists Christopher Leeper and Tim Saternow. From delicate landscapes to bold abstracts, these pieces evoke emotion, challenge perception, and celebrate the beauty of the medium.
View images from the International Exhibition of Works on Paper reception.
Kaleidoscope: Celebrating Community at Penn State Great Valley
Penn State Great Valley Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni
Exhibition Displayed: June 18 – August 30, 2024
This exhibit served as a celebration of our incredibly creative community at Penn State Great Valley. The Henry Art Gallery walls came alive with the diverse talents of our campus family. From captivating paintings and intricate drawings to mesmerizing watercolor works and tactile fiber arts, each piece offered a unique glimpse into the imagination and skill of our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and retirees.
This was more than just an exhibit; it was a joyful celebration of what makes each of us unique and a testament to art’s magnetic effect. The exhibit showcased the beauty of our collective expression and the threads that unite us all.
“The Trashy Women Turn Twenty”
The Trashy Women
Exhibition Displayed: April 4 – June 3, 2024
Ten Trashy artists used recycled and upcycled materials in witty and whimsical ways, exciting viewers’ imaginations and encouraging them to see far beyond the original use of an object.
View the “Trashy Women Turn Twenty” exhibit reception photo album.
Pastel Society Members' Exhibit
Philadelphia Pastel Society
Exhibition Displayed: January 16 – March 15, 2024
This exhibit showcased the timeless allure of pastel as a medium, where regional artists come together to captivate viewers with their mastery of color and consistency. This juried exhibit promised a visual symphony of soft pastel strokes, unveiling a spectrum of emotions, landscapes, and narratives. From ethereal portraits that seemed to breathe life onto the canvas to evocative landscapes that transported you to distant vistas, this curated collection was a testament to the boundless creativity and skill of pastel artists, inviting art enthusiasts to explore the world through the delicate yet powerful lens of pastel.
View the Philadelphia Pastel Society’s exhibit reception photo album.
The Arts as a Vehicle for Social Change
The Camphill School, Camphill Soltane, Camphill Village Kimberton Hills and Frog Hollow Farm
The exhibit featured artwork from local non-profit organizations who work alongside those with special needs, and showcased mosaics, textiles, ceramics, and woodworking. Together, we celebrated the stories of the artists who believe the arts can be a vehicle for social change.
“From Inspiration to Expression”
National League of Pen Women Diamond State Branch
Exhibition Displayed: August 9, 2023 to October 10, 2023
"Ghost Chords Entwined" by Mary Lou Griffin is one of the pieces that was on display at "From Inspiration to Expression" at Penn State Great Valley's Henry Gallery.
The purpose of the Arts and Letters Challenge was to stimulate creativity and push creative boundaries. Arts and Letters members submitted titles of already existing work that would be used as inspiration for newly created pieces. Artists would pick a title of a written work from a hat. That piece would be used as their inspiration for a new painting. Likewise, writers would pick the title of a painting from a hat, and that artwork would be used as inspiration for a newly created piece of writing. Those who are both Letters and Arts members could do both art and writing challenges or choose just one.
Inspirational writings and artwork were sent to the participants. No one would know the identity of the creator of the piece they had drawn and would be using as inspiration. “From Inspiration to Expression” was the culmination of this unique project with the big reveal: who selected each piece, and what did the artist/writer do with it? The project proved to be fun and an opportunity for members to explore different creative ways of expression, unusual topics and to present their own unique viewpoint. The inspirational piece and new work created from it were displayed together.
View the “From Inspiration to Expression” exhibit reception photo album.
“Facing Forward”
Artists Equity
Exhibition Displayed: April 3 – May 31, 2023
Artists Equity focused on portraiture to tell stories of inspiration, hope, challenge, and change. It has always been the role of art to document, examine, and make sense of a concept and our moment in time.
“Facing Forward” is a post-pandemic exhibition that faces this unusual time in history head-on. History is made up of people, their values, and their actions. What better vehicle to begin to process, capture, and reflect on who we are today than portraiture?
View the “Facing Forward” exhibit reception photo album.
The Art of Storytelling
Da Vinci Art Alliance
Exhibition Displayed: January 17 – March 17, 2023
"The ART of Storytelling" pays homage to age-old textiles as artists develop new approaches to their art.
Holding hands with the past while pointing toward the future, nine artists paid homage to age-old textiles as they developed new approaches to their art. Linda Dubin Garfield, Susan Leonard, Christina E Johnson, Eleanor Levie, Sandi Neiman Lovitz, Valetta, Cynthia Philkill, Elsa Wachs, and Marcie Ziskind each have their own long-developed practice of working on canvas or with paper, wool roving, cloth, and other materials. Techniques included painting, printing, felting, piecing, stitching, quilting or weaving.
These artists take their place in a time-honored sisterhood of skilled makers from centuries past whose creations were often disparaged as “women’s work.” Each of the artists have daringly and confidently spun new ways to combine strands and shapes, sweep color and pattern across a surface, and express both softness and strength, both joy and resolve as they revealed their stories.
View the Art of Storytelling exhibit reception photo album.
Chinese Art Showcase
International Chinese Arts Society of Americas
Exhibition Displayed: September 6 – December 6, 2022
The Chinese Art Showcase featured the work of 30 renowned Chinese American artists, many from the East Coast, including the award-winning artist Fengshi Jin from New York City. The exhibit focused on traditional painting and calligraphy that promotes Chinese culture.
View images from the Chinese Art Showcase exhibit and read more about this exhibit.
View photos of the Chinese Art Showcase reception.
Keep It Local
Chester County Camera Club
Exhibition Displayed: April 18 – June 17, 2022
The Greater Philadelphia region is an extraordinary locale, and the past two years have resulted in keeping most people at home. While committed to staying safe, the members of Chester County Camera Club (CCCC) found themselves rediscovering the wonders of the resplendent beauty right where the community lives. These talented photographers have captured everything from the smallest details to fabulous vistas; this exhibit presented photographic images of the beautiful scenery in and around Chester County.
View images from the Chester County Camera Club exhibit reception.
“Celebration of Trees”
Da Vinci Art Alliance
Exhibition Displayed: September 30 – December 8, 2021
“Celebration of Trees” was an exhibition featuring Nancy Agati, Frank DiPietro, Linda Dubin Garfield, Jenn Hallgren, Amie Potsic, and Susan Stefanski. The presentation included photographs, prints, paintings, and mixed media works. Potsic additionally exhibited site-specific photographic installations that reference the sensory experience of being within the forest while encouraging us to appreciate and preserve its future.
All of the artists are inspired by the architecture of trees themselves, formative memories, the experience of being in nature, and environmentalism. To support improved environmental policies and draw attention to climate change, they manifest a connection to the earth and an understanding of the importance of forests.