The Place We Carry

OCTOBER 20, 2026 – JANUARY 22, 2027

Reception: Monday, October 26, 5-7 PM

stArt.dt, 455 Vine St. (second floor atrium)

The Place We Carry is an exhibition of artwork curated from Wake Forest University’s John P. Anderson Collection of Student Art, established in 1993, which comprises over 400 works.

Student curator Luna Bai is a senior Art History major with minors in Studio Art and Cultural Heritage & Preservation. She writes:

I have long thought of human history as a history of migration. From ancient migration to contemporary experiences of colonization, immigration, and displacement, people carry languages, beliefs, traditions, and memories that may be preserved, adapted, or lost over time. In the United States, a nation deeply shaped by immigration, these cultural legacies meet, overlap, and transform one another.

The Place We Carry explores how artists translate traditions, memories, places, and encounters into contemporary visual languages, presenting culture as an ongoing process of inheritance, negotiation, and change. Drawn from the John P. Anderson Collection of Student Art, the exhibition brings together eight works by seven Wake Forest students. Collectively, the works also reveal Wake Forest as an American university shaped by its students’ diverse cultural histories.