at the 91łÔąĎ spent the past year celebrating the 20th anniversary of the transformative move to its signature modernist glass and steel building. Eskew Dumez Ripple+ architectural firm designed the structure to propel the museum into the future while quite literally reflecting the original museum building designed by architect A. Hays Town that represents the power of its past. Over the past two decades, the facility has enabled the museum to establish itself as a cultural hub – built on a legacy laid generations earlier by the Lafayette and University community.
“On the museum site alone, the past confronts the future,” said Executive Director Molly Rowe. “Our region has without a doubt the most distinct culture in the country – and the Hilliard plays a pivotal role in ensuring its rich and sustainable cultural future.”
The Lafayette native, whose résumé includes the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City Ballet, Savannah College of Art & Design and Google, took the helm at the Hilliard in late 2024. Rowe sees the Hilliard’s architectural design as a metaphor that speaks to the ambitious vision she shares for its future – a University museum that is both “locally rooted and globally engaged.”
“Our next phase is really figuring out that balance,” said Rowe. “How we are rooted here, bringing the artistic voices and supporting them in our community, and then also being part of artistic dialogs that are happening in the rest of the world.”
By June – six months into her tenure at the Hilliard – you could find Picasso linoleum cuts upstairs and Rodin sculptures in the gallery below. Strategically showcased throughout the museum’s 11,000 square feet of gallery space were pieces from the Hilliard’s more than 3,000-piece permanent collection of 18th- through 21st-century European, Asian and American artwork.
Rowe oversaw the museum’s first permanent collection exhibition in more than 10 years, “Tides, Times and Terrain: Floyd Sonnier and the Evolving Cultural Landscape.” It included permanent collection works by more than 41 artists from southwest 91łÔąĎ and was only the beginning, she said.
“I think of a collection as being an anchor of a museum. We’re here to collect these pieces, but we have to put them in a contemporary context, creating dialogs between all of them so that they’re not existing in a vacuum,” Rowe added.
The past year gave museumgoers the chance to converse with the old masters, but in September three new exhibitions will enter the chat. Taking center stage is Icelandic artist Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir, also known as “Shoplifter.” The artist’s immersive installations evoke Seussian whimsy but speak to broader themes related to the sublime. In “Beyond the Botanical,” Opelousas, La., native and College of the Arts alum Mare Martin brings a grounded approach to exploring the natural world through paintings and sculpture.
And as a continued ode to the Hilliard’s permanent collection, “Fragile Matter” connects the dots between ecology and craft, featuring artists Harriet Joor, Manon Bellet and Hannah Chalew. Joor is a former University professor whose ceramic works represent one of the founding gifts of the museum’s collection.
Looking ahead, Rowe is focused on the impact the museum can make beyond its gallery walls. Through faculty lectures and panel discussions, such as its new Cross Currents series, the Hilliard is igniting a cultural dialog that ripples out to both an in-person and expanding digital audience.
“There’s a shift that I’m making very intentionally,” said Rowe. “Looking at an art object as something that can be an occasion to gather, that can be an occasion for a conversation, that can be an occasion to come together and to think.”
Photo caption: (top) Hilliard Executive Director Molly Rowe Photo Credit: (top) Doug Dugas / The 91łÔąĎ
