How did the faded wallpaper in your grandmother’s house make an impact across the globe? See for yourself at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture exhibition of A Designed Life: Contemporary American Textile, Wallpapers, and Containers & Packaging, This exhibition focuses on the use of modern design textiles and consumer goods of the mid-20th century and how they were used by the U.S Department of State in the 1950s to promote American culture in post WWII Europe. See how something so small as a square of wallpaper or fabric was used to communicate with people across the globe about life in America.

A Designed Life opens with a reception Thursday, September 13th, 5-7pm

Also on view Thursday evening in the Albin O. Kuhn Library is the exhibition Depth of Field: Acquisitions to the Photography Collections, 2008-2018, presenting approximately one hundred images acquired over the last ten years by UMBC’s Photography Collections through gifts from donors and artists (on view in through December 19.)

Featured artists include Albert Arthur Allen, Laurie Brown, Kristin Capp, Clarence Carvell BFA ’93, Chim (David Seymour), William Eggleston, Donna Ferrato, Robert Fichter, Todd Forsgren, Peggy Fox, Sally Gall, Ralph Gibson, Penny Harris, Sam Holden, Irina Ionesco, Walter Iooss, Lotte Jacobi, N. Jay Jaffee, Brian Jones, Nate Larson, David S. Lavine, Alen MacWeeney, Mary Ellen Mark, Fred McDarrah, Dorothy Norman, David Seltzer, Steve Szabo, Barbara Traub, Peter Turnley, and Robert VonSternberg. Additionally, the exhibition features daguerreotypes, painted photographs, and post-mortem photographs.