Ball State University's David Owsley Museum of Art (DOMA) will present two special exhibitions this fall, running from September 18 to December 19, 2025. The first, "Cercle et Carré and the International Spirit of Abstract Art," organized by the Georgia Museum of Art, features over 60 works by members of the short-lived but influential modernist collective founded in Paris in 1929, including Wassily Kandinsky, Fernand Léger, Alexandra Exter, and Franciska Clausen. The second, "Indiana Pastoral: The Photography of Lamar Richcreek," showcases 28 photographs by the Ball State graduate (1947–2018), whose work documents the postwar transformation of rural Indiana from a banker-turned-photographer's perspective. Both exhibitions are free and open to the public.
These exhibitions matter because they highlight DOMA's role in bringing both international modernist art and local Indiana storytelling to a regional audience, reinforcing the importance of university museums in cultural education. The Cercle et Carré show introduces a pivotal but often overlooked movement in abstract art, while the Richcreek exhibition preserves and interprets the changing agricultural landscape of the Midwest, connecting personal history with broader economic shifts. The collaboration with the Georgia Museum of Art and the gift from the artist's estate also underscore the value of institutional partnerships and donor support in sustaining museum programming.