Whitman College Magazine Winter 2021

commission for the New York Metropolitan Museum of
Fine Art at the Walla Walla Foundry, which was founded
by the late Whitman alumnus Mark Anderson ’78.
Underground Hornship, for its part, was cast in 2018 at the
Modern Art Foundry in Queens, New York. The sculpture
is nearly two feet high and 32 inches wide and will be
placed on permanent exhibition on campus in the spring.
Many of the new works have been purchased
through the Gaiser Art Endowment and with financial
support from alumni.
PRESERVING, PROCURING
AND PROGRESSING
The Sheehan Gallery was named after Donald H.
Sheehan, Whitman’s ninth president. It opened in
1973 to support the liberal arts curriculum, while also
collecting, preserving and exhibiting historical and
contemporary art.
More than half of the college’s permanent collection
is displayed throughout campus. “Not only does this
bring vibrancy to these spaces, but it also provides
great access to students and faculty when these works
are used in courses,” Forbes says. “It’s wonderful to
be able to say, ‘You want to see Jacob Lawrence prints?
Well, head over to this building and you’ll find them in
this hallway.’”
Forbes’ Sheehan experience predates his director
role. As a studio art major at Whitman, he exhibited
his thesis—life-size, mixed-media sculptures, “The
Four Horses of the Apocalypse,” at the gallery. And
Whitman community members are likely familiar with
a distinct piece of work by Forbes—the wall of ceramic
fish, Upward Mobility—on the first floor of Reid
Campus Center.
Kiefel’s other art pursuits include drawing
comics and graphic novels, and teaching cartooning
techniques to elementary and middle-school students
in Walla Walla.
And she shares Forbes’ passion for evolving the
college’s holdings. “It’s about getting to the core
of things, getting to all truths,” Kiefel says. “In
reality, we’re surrounded by a variety of people and
experiences, so our visual landscape should reflect
that complexity and that every-ness. It gives us all
permission to thrive and to continue to create in our
own voices, instead of someone else’s.
“I hope that Whitman students are surprised,
intrigued, inspired, challenged and propelled by the
recent acquisitions to the collection. I also hope that
these works give viewers permission to grow here.”
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