With Rapture and Astonishment at UGA Circle Gallery
With Rapture and Astonishment
Reimagining the Bartram Trail
June 24th–September 12th, 2023
Circle Gallery
UGA College of Environment + Design
285 South Jackson Street, Athens, Georgia
Public Reception: Saturday, August 5th, 3 - 6 pm
The Circle Gallery is open 9am–5pm weekdays.
Parking is available in the North Campus Deck, 330 South Jackson Street
With Rapture & Astonishment is a photography exhibition that takes its name from a quote by American artist, botanist, and ethnographer William Bartram, which he made upon reaching the summit of Wayah Bald in May of 1775. Here he “beheld with rapture and astonishment, a sublimely awful scene of power and magnificence….”
This dynamic exhibition reflects the visual experiences of twelve artists as they traveled in Bartram’s footsteps. Each artist worked in the spirit of curiosity, exploration, and wonder while reimagining this well-traveled landscape. Featuring images from coastal Georgia to North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, With Rapture & Astonishment invites viewers to enter an intimate world where the trail is alive and waiting to be met and listened to anew.
A public reception for With Rapture and Astonishment will be held Saturday, August 5th, 3 - 6 pm in conjunction with the 2023 Bartram Trail Conference.
About the Photographers:
The photographers featured in this exhibition embraced Bartram's exploratory spirit and cultivated curiosity, and humility while reimagining this ancient and well-traveled landscape. Many of the photographers featured here drew inspiration and guidance from the place-based traditions of diverse indigenous peoples, including The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, who have stewarded this land for millennia and who freely shared their plant knowledge and wisdom with William Bartram.
Featured artists include:
The Circle Gallery is named for the holistic nature of design and seeks to present exhibits that engender curiosity and increase our powers of observation. Because our college is comprised of diverse programs—landscape architecture, historic preservation and environmental planning and design—our exhibits run an eclectic gamut. From paintings and drawings, to sculpture and photography, to cultural and historical presentations, we explore humanity’s place within nature.
Community Partners
With Rapture and Astonishment is a community collaboration facilitated by the Kinship Photography Collective in partnership with the Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy, Bartram Trail Conference, The Bascom: A Center for Visual Arts, and the Circle Gallery at the University of Georgia.
