Visiting the gallery
The Furlong Gallery is on the ground floor of the Applied Arts Building, inside the west entrance. Admission is always free. The gallery is open whenever the building is, which during the term means 7 a.m.–10 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m.–6 p.m. weekends. Staffed hours, when an attendant is on duty, the vitrines are open and you can ask questions, are Tuesday–Saturday, noon–5 p.m., and Thursdays until 8 p.m.
Opening receptions are on the first evening of each show, 5–7 p.m., with free food and an artist talk at 5:30. Anyone may walk in. The gallery is run by director Lise Brekke and preparator Joel Strand, with eight student gallery assistants, a paid job that teaches installation, lighting and condition reporting. See Furlong Gallery & University Collections for the research side and galleries & public art for the rest of campus.
Fall 2026
Just closed: the summer exhibition Made at Porter, 1893–1937 (see the June story) showed 140 objects made by students of the Porter Manual Training School and its successor, each paired with work by a current student. It closed August 22.
Fence Line: Photographs from Porter County — Karin Haugland
September 3–October 17. Forty-six large-format color photographs made over six years along the property lines of Porter County: windbreaks, rock piles, survey pins and the places where one farm’s mowing stops and the next one’s starts. Haugland is a photographer based in Lake City. Final week: if you have not seen it, you have until next Saturday.
Load Bearing: Art & Design Faculty Exhibition
October 29–December 4. Opening Thursday, October 29. The biennial faculty show, this year built around objects that hold something up or hold something in: stoneware storage jars, a steam-bent ash bench, a woven room divider, letterpress broadsides about bridges, and an industrial-design prototype of a folding hospital step stool that the Health Sciences Center has, inconveniently for the exhibition, asked to keep. Fourteen faculty from the Department of Art & Design show work. Gallery talk Thursday, November 12, 4:30 p.m. Chamber musicians play among the work on November 15.
B.F.A. Senior Exhibition
December 12–January 29 (closed December 19–January 4). Work by December graduates in art and design. Opening reception Saturday, December 12.
Spring 2027
Low Water — Constance Achterberg
February 5–March 13. Opening Friday, February 5. Thirty oil paintings and a wall of graphite drawings of the Porter River and the Millrace through the dry summer of 2025, when the riverbed showed old mill footings and a surprising number of shopping carts. Achterberg lives in Cedar Bluff and paints outdoors in all weather, including weather that would discourage most people.
Ironwork: Five Smiths
March 26–April 24. Opening Friday, March 26. An invited exhibition of contemporary blacksmithing from across the Upper Midwest: architectural gates, tools, vessels and sculpture by Abel Marquardt, Yuki Halloran, Odette Fairweather, Samir Kettunen and Jo Brandauer. Live forging demonstration Saturday, April 10, 1–4 p.m., in the Applied Arts metal yard. Safety glasses are provided and the demonstration is enthusiastically loud.
M.F.A. & Senior Thesis Exhibition
May 8–22. The year’s largest show, with work by spring graduates in every studio program. Opening reception Saturday, May 8, the same weekend as the devised piece Shift Change in the Black Box down the hall.
At a glance: the year
| Dates | Exhibition | Opening |
|---|---|---|
| June–Aug 22 (closed) | Made at Porter, 1893–1937 (summer) | June |
| Sept 3–Oct 17 | Fence Line, Karin Haugland | Thu, Sept 3 |
| Oct 29–Dec 4 | Load Bearing, art & design faculty | Thu, Oct 29 |
| Dec 12–Jan 29 | B.F.A. Senior Exhibition | Sat, Dec 12 |
| Feb 5–Mar 13 | Low Water, Constance Achterberg | Fri, Feb 5 |
| Mar 26–Apr 24 | Ironwork: Five Smiths | Fri, Mar 26 |
| May 8–22 | M.F.A. & Senior Thesis Exhibition | Sat, May 8 |
Classes, groups and proposals
Faculty in any department can book a gallery session for a class. A physics section used the 1931 lathe-pulley pattern from the summer show to talk about shrinkage allowances in casting. K–12 and community groups can book a free guided visit with two weeks’ notice. The gallery takes proposals for the 2027–28 season until February 1, 2027, and gives priority to artists from the region and to work that connects to the university’s collections or to how things are made. Students interested in the Visual Arts Scholarship or the arts & design living-learning community will find the gallery is where much of that community spends Thursday nights. The full arts season lists performances alongside these shows.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. The Furlong Gallery, its staff, exhibitions, artists, objects and dates are invented; none of these artists or works exist and there is no gallery to visit.