On Sunday, the Good Library hosted a reception to celebrate the works of Chad Friesen, a member of the Southside Fellowship in South Bend who died in 2013. Though Friesen faced a lifelong physical disability with no diagnosis, he left behind a legacy of over one thousand paintings.  The presenter on the day was Elizabeth Miller, assistant professor of history. She opened the reception by saying, “The energy coming into the room this afternoon feels like a reunion.” The feeling was shared by friends and family of Chad Friesen, as well as Goshen alumni who were present. Speaking at the...

By Liam Shaw • September 19, 2024 • Arts

The nonfiction section at the Good Library has always highlighted stories of our current times. This semester, the fight for racial equality will be at the forefront. After a grant from Indiana Humanities was awarded to Goshen College, Fritz Hartman, library director, began the hunt for 63 books, among a list of 300, to add to the library’s collection. The Advancing Racial Equity Collection Development grant from Indiana Humanities is a one- time $1,000 grant to help with purchasing books on racial equality and anti-racism. “It should be noted that the people who selected these materials were no slouches,” Hartman...

By Patrick Webb • September 3, 2020 • Features

Art collections don’t often involve costumes, especially prints of them from 15th century Anabaptists. For Paul and Jean Kraybill, donors of The Kraybill Collection, there’s no art they’d rather keep. The collection, a gathered set of colored engravings and prints depicting Anabaptists in Switzerland, Alsace and the Palatinate, a historical territory under the rule of the German Empire between 1700 and 1900, was donated to the Mennonite Historical Library in 2018. Along with the collection, the current Library Gallery exhibit features photos of Dutch and Russian Mennonite costumes, contemporary Plain apparel and contextual artifacts. The Kraybill Collection found its beginning...

By Record • September 21, 2019 • Arts

The Good LIbrary Art Gallery is currently home to an exhibit recognizing the 50th anniversary of Goshen’s Study Service Term. The exhibit, entitled “Brought Home: Objects and Stories from 50 Years of SST,” is comprised of artifacts students and faculty members brought back to the U.S. from their SST experiences. There is a wide selection of exotic objects, fine art and folk art, including paintings, textiles, toys, carvings, costumes, jewelry, ceramics, baskets, masks and metalwork. Some of the objects were gifts from friends who went to foreign countries, while others were brought back by the travelers themselves. All of these...

By Emily Cummings • March 8, 2019 • Arts

A large portion of the Goshen College student body has never dared to step foot into the confines of Goshen College’s Mennonite Historical Library, located on the third floor of the Good Library. But while the archives may only serve a select few students in their time at GC, they are a remarkably important part of the research of two Argentine anthropologists, Agustina Altman and Alejandro López, from the University of Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, Argentina.   The pair will be staying at GC from Jan. 28 to March 5.   Altman has a Ph.D. in anthropology and currently...

By Carter Mckay-Epp • February 16, 2019 • Features

Most students know of the Good Library Gallery. However, there is more to the gallery than meets the eye. Fritz Hartman, Good Library director and manager of the art gallery, explained that the gallery was built as part of the original design for the library. Since 1967, a great variety of displays have been held in the gallery. The gallery hosts two to four galleries each year and has held over 150 unique galleries since its inception. Nonetheless, delays in building construction pushed the first 1967 gallery to another location, according to Joe Springer, Mennonite Historical Library curator. The first...

By Patrick Webb • January 17, 2019 • Features

Walk down the flight of stairs to the Good Library basement, take a right and you’ll enter a room full of color. Sculptures, paintings, photographs and drawings cover the walls of the Library Gallery, all responding to the same theme: “Society and the Other.” The collection of artwork displays the contributions of over 30 artists from the student body at large. With so many different pieces and contributing artists, the exhibition presents an impressive diversity of approaches to the given theme. Merrill Krabill, professor of art, said, “The thing I like and that surprises me is how creative people are...

By Gabe Miller • January 17, 2019 • Arts

The collection of local Amish folk art which has been displayed in the Hershberger Art Gallery for the past several months is moving to the Good Library Gallery, where it will remain until Nov. 18.   “The items on display come from a collection purchased for the college by alumni who support the Mennonite Historical Library and the Mennonite-Amish Museum Committee,” said Ervin Beck, a former GC professor, who has worked with the museum to display Mennonite and Amish art since 1985. Beck explained that all of the items are antiques, but that some even date as far back as...

By Laura Miller • September 18, 2018 • Arts

Telling tales of military conscription, community humiliation, imprisonment and mob violence at the hands of a war-minded nation, the exhibit “Voices of Conscience: Peace Witness in the Great War” celebrates the memory of conscientious observers during World War 1. The Good Library Gallery formally opened the historical exhibit to the public in a reception on Feb. 18. The gallery space is filled with installations documenting numerous instances of peaceful resistance from 1914-1918. The legacies of Hutterite martyrs, political protesters and “sectarian separatists” document the impact of resistance. Provocative quotes and text documents evoke moral questions, and large scale graphics invite...

By Siana Emery • February 22, 2018 • Arts

Walk down to the basement of the Good Library and you’ll find a wide variety of art on display. The pieces, which range from pottery to collages to paintings to photography, are united by a common theme which doubles as the title of the exhibit: “Recycled.” The theme was introduced at the beginning of the year and students across the visual art department began work last semester, according to Randy Horst, Goshen College art professor. Horst helped to coordinate the exhibit. “It’s another way of engaging ideas that are being brought up in a class context, in various convocations, and...

By Laura Miller • January 18, 2018 • Arts

In the lower level of the Harold and Wilma Good Library is Kathryn Aschliman’s “sanctuary”  - her office. Aschliman is a professor emerita of education after having taught in the Laboratory Kindergarten for 34 years, and her office sits across the hall from the Mary Royer Reading Room. “Can you imagine,” she said, “I have been retired 21 years, and to still have a place on this campus? I mean that’s very special.” But now, Aschliman has more than just an office on campus -- she also has a peace arts collection named after her. The college’s collection of peace...

By Jordan Waidelich • October 26, 2017 • News

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  The North and South student art exhibit will remain in the Good Library Basement Gallery until March 16.Photo by Maria Bischoff   Over the course of the fall semester, 39 Goshen College students explored the theme “North and South” in a variety of art classes. The products of this exploration are on display in the basement of the Good Library. Exploring ideas of polarization, the exhibit features 55 student works including watercolor paintings, pencil and charcoal drawings, mixed media collage, ceramics and sculpture. During the first convocation of the spring semester, members of the GC community heard from several...

By Jenae Longenecker • January 14, 2016 • Arts

The following selection is one of the many stories showcased in the Good Library exhibit entitled “Along the Road to Freedom: Mennonite Women of Courage and Faith. Anna Dick Bergmann  Born April 7, 1880 on the family estate Rosenhof, Southern Russia, now Ukraine. Passed away: February 24, 1961. “Anna grew up on her parent’s large estate. Her mother, who came from Alsace, France, provided her with a good education and a grounding in the Christian faith. In 1901, Anna married Abram Bergmann and settled on an estate called Woronaya. Anna gave birth to ten children. Four died at a young...

By Ellen Conrad • September 17, 2015 • Arts

Since November 19th, student artists have been displaying their work in the Good Library Basement Gallery in an exhibit entitled “Tolerance and the Other.” Students were challenged to reflect on the theme of “Tolerance and the Other” and create artwork that would give viewers an opportunity to view themes of tolerance from new perspectives. The result was a variety of different pieces done with a variety of different mediums all working to capture one open-ended theme. Ida Short, a senior visual art major and piano pedagogy minor, submitted two pieces for the exhibit: a photograph titled “Human Trees” and a...

By Christina Hofer • January 22, 2015 • Arts