The Binghamton University Art Museum (BUAM) has opened its fall semester exhibition, “In the American Grain: Exploring America through Art, 1919-1946,” curated by art history professor Tom McDonough. The show spans the interwar period through World War II, featuring works from BUAM’s collection—many donated by local collectors Gil and Deborah Williams—alongside loans from the BU libraries, the Roberson Museum and Science Center, and the Art Bridges Collection. Originally conceived with Chelsea Gibson of the Binghamton Codes! Program, the exhibition grew from a pandemic-era digital project and includes thematic categories such as Americans Abroad, City Life, Picturing Black Lives, and War Time, with works by artists like Jane Peterson, Chiura Obata, James Lesesne Wells, and Helen Torr.
This exhibition matters because it uses the BUAM collection to examine how American artists responded to a period of profound social and political change—from the Roaring ’20s and the Great Depression to the New Deal and Pearl Harbor. By highlighting works by women and Black artists, the show challenges traditional narratives of American art and prompts viewers to consider who has been included in the country’s ideals. The inclusion of Chiura Obata’s spare drawings of a Japanese American internment camp offers a rare, critical perspective, underscoring the ongoing need for expanded definitions of citizenship and artistic representation.