Shakespeare + Art
In 2018, the GV Shakespeare Festival celebrated their 25th season of exploring and celebrating Shakespeare and his culture for the West Community and GVSU. Each year GVSU faculty, staff, and students put on a production of a different Shakespeare play, starting with A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1994, to King Lear as part of the 25th-anniversary celebration. Over the years, the GVSU Art Gallery has collected a number of Shakespeare related artworks, posters and print collections.
Shakespeare at GVSU
Check out Shakespeare in the GVSU Art Gallery permanent collection, or take a walking tour around campus to see it in person with Art at GVSU mobile application for Apple and Android devices!
GVSU’s Shakespeare Garden
The Shakespeare Garden, an idea fostered by GVSU President Don Lubbers, was first dedicated on October 6th, 1993. What started as a small plot of uneven, unloved land, became a project that brought together students, professors and GVSU staff. All of the work to create the original garden, plotting, digging, planting, weeding, and mowing was all accomplished by the GVSU community. Even the first flowers were transplanted from home gardens, and ceramic plant markers created by a local artist. Over the years there have been a number of sculpture additions to the garden that are now part of the GVSU Art Gallery permanent collection.
The Stage and Its Stars
“The Stage and Its Stars” is a two-volume set of over 100 pages of text and 56 full-page photogravures with a full-page description for each print. The collection features a “gallery of dramatic illustration and critical biographies of distinguished English and American Actors from the time of Shakespeare till to-day”- or the late 1890s when the set was first published by George Gebbie, a lithographer. Check out the GVSU Art Gallery collection’s copy of this large collection.