Tiny Galleries Offer Windows into Students' Learning, Creativity
Story and Event Photos by Izzy Smith, Media Studies major (Class of ‘26) and UO Libraries Communications Assistant
The University of Oregon Libraries celebrated the return of Tiny Galleries for 2025–2026 with record attendance at the October 15 opening reception, and this year’s exhibitions do not disappoint.
"Tiny Galleries was designed to provide an opportunity for students to showcase their creative work, research or hobbies in a way that is informational or thought provoking,” says Resource Sharing Librarian Kristin Walker, primary facilitator for Tiny Galleries. For the past two years, Walker has coordinated proposal calls, managed the selection committee and communicated with the winning students as they schedule and plan for their installations.
Each year, the committee selects five installations to revitalize the three historic phone booths in Knight’s entrance halls and the two flat display cases in the Design Library Relaxation Area. The galleries provide a platform for students to showcase their creativity in ways that are as thought-provoking as they are beautiful.
All five installations reflect exactly what makes UO’s community so unique: the ability to blend academics and knowledge with aesthetics and creativity.
The Tiny Galleries are open throughout the academic year in the east and west entrances of Knight Library and Lawrence Hall’s Design Library. Stop by and immerse yourself in the creativity that brings our community together!
Meet the Artists | Knight Library
Kacey Drake
The Nervous System through the Looking Glass
Kacey Drake merges neuroscience and stained-glass artistry in The Nervous System through the Looking Glass, turning the complex systems of the brain into an installation that reflects how research and art can overlap in unexpected ways. Drake’s installation is inspired by her work in the Institute of Neuroscience’s Doe Lab, where she studies the neural activity of Drosophila, or fruit flies.
Rachel Sol Lee
this prism of my own making
Rachel Sol Lee’s this prism of my own making reflects a beautiful and complex overlap of her love for textiles and connection across landscapes of time and memory. She explores queer Asian diasporic identity through what she calls “cosmic innocence.” Lee is also a member of Q[Ch]Asm, a collective studying queer Asian American kinship through art and research.
Mariana Rivera
The Pleasure of Doing Too Much: Black and Latina Femmes Embody Excess
Mariana Rivera’s The Pleasure of Doing Too Much: Black and Latina Femmes Embody Excess celebrates and discusses the aesthetics of excess in Black and Latina expressions. Drawing on theories from Jillian Hernandez and Nicole Fleetwood, they entirely reimagine the Virgen de Guadalupe, bringing Mexican folklore and Black and Latina feminist theories into an aesthetically pleasing and beautiful installation.
Meet the Artists | Design Library
Liesl Cohn
Migrant Memories of Guatemalan Maya Living in Oregon
Liesl Cohn’s Migrant Memories of Guatemalan Maya Living in Oregon draws knowledge from more than a decade of research and government projects that center on community and collective memory. The artist’s personal experiences and academic interests play a huge role in her installation, ultimately sustaining diasporic identity and bringing light to voices that are often dimmed.
Lola Tagwerker
Eyes on Ireland
Lola Tagwerker’s photography series, Eyes on Ireland documents her time studying cinema abroad in Dublin, capturing parallels between the Irish landscape and her home state of Oregon. Also shown at the 2025 Undergraduate Research Symposium, the collection reflects her experience seeing the familiar in the unfamiliar.