Director's Letter
On May 18, 2026, the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College celebrated its first five years of public operation. I am honored to have served as its director for this initial phase of evolution from the Pomona College Museum of Art to the Benton. When I started working at Pomona in January of 2020, our beautiful new building had recently been completed, and we were in the process of moving the collection into our new purpose-built vaults. Our staff was also on the move, migrating paper files, books, tools, and modest personal effects to new office spaces across College Avenue. We were effectively operating two museums— one yet to be fully occupied and the other still running on full steam. Our final project in Montgomery Art Hall was an ambitious yearlong photography exhibition with in situ wall drawings by Los Angeles–based artist Todd Gray; the exhibition was accompanied by a groundbreaking publication and a provocative series of public programs, which included hybrid performances, scholarly presentations, and site-specific choreography. It was a time of great energy, excitement, and anticipation for a new beginning that had been envisioned but not yet made manifest.
The pandemic of that spring brought our work to an abrupt halt. Through alternating schedules, health precautions, and many, many Zoom meetings, we continued planning programs and installing art in our new galleries for the first time, not realizing that it would be more than a full year until we could open our doors to the public. When students came back to campus in person in the fall of 2021, we embraced the opportunity to test the motivating hypothesis of our new building: would increased access to our collections, expanded exhibition space, and greater visitor services create more interest in the resources we have to offer? Five years later, the answer is a resounding yes, and I am thrilled to report that the plans we articulated to inhabit and animate our new building have nearly all been realized.
To ensure that the physical space of the Benton was put to its best use, we started working with Professor Paul Ingram of Columbia Business School in the summer of 2021. We began formulating our strategy with him through a process he designed for establishing a hierarchy of values, first our individual values and then how they combine to create collective Benton values: Creativity, Engagement, Compassion, Belonging, and Excellence. With the premise that we wanted to anchor our work in our academic setting, we developed a strategic plan to connect diverse communities through transformative art experiences. Many initiatives and efforts contribute to such a plan, key elements of which are summarized as follows:
ELEVATE AND ACTIVATE VISITOR EXPERIENCE
CONSIDER A BROAD SET OF FACULTY AND STUDENTS IN ALL MUSEUM ACTIVITIES
ALIGN COLLECTIONS AND EXHIBITIONS WITH NEEDS OF COMMUNITY AND CONTEMPORARY ISSUES
INSPIRE A BENTON CULTURE OF OPENNESS, EMPATHY, AND BELONGING
MAXIMIZE STUDENT VOICE
Although some of the goals set forth in 2021 need more development to be fully achieved, we find that we have completed much of what we set before ourselves, the specifics of which you see on the facing page.
Looking into a second phase of institutional development under the still-new banner of the Benton, we intend to hold fast to what defines us: our distinctive commitment to the space of the art museum as a site for active learning. We are now poised to evaluate these first five years of public service to understand how we may best contribute not only to the academic community at the core of our identity but also to a broader ecosystem of peer institutions regionally, nationally, and perhaps even internationally. We are eager to clarify for ourselves where and how we can make the greatest impact—in creating exhibitions, public programs, publications, and professional training opportunities, and in establishing institutional practices that we hope can move the museum field forward.
As we enter a year of further analysis, strategy, and planning, I want to express the enormous gratitude I feel for all those who have supported our efforts. If you have visited our exhibitions, attended an artist’s talk, subscribed to our emails, approved a grant solicitation, shared an idea, joined an online presentation, brought a class to visit our collections, allowed us to show your art, or told a friend to discover our space, I say thank you. Thank you for your interest and support. We share the joy of five successful years of operation with you, and, with your continued support, we embrace the exhilarating challenge of planning for many more years ahead.
To give some sense of specific projects that contributed to realizing the abstract aims listed on the facing page, I would mention a few that represent the collective effort we invested to move our museum forward:
WE
- established a Visitor Services department.
- created a staff handbook.
- digitized our permanent collections, which are now all published to our website and fully searchable.
- developed a communications strategy that includes bi-weekly subscriber emails, social media posts, website content, publicly distributed annual reports, and both short- and long-form documentaries posted to YouTube.
- founded Friends of the Benton, our circle of annual supporters. expanded our undergraduate internship program, which now hosts 25–30 interns per year.
- presented a varied and dynamic exhibition program of approximately eight exhibitions per year that reflects deep collaboration with faculty, students, and contemporary artists.
- published eleven books, including three collection catalogues, three print-on-demand student-centered projects, and three monographic studies.
- deepened our community partnerships and inaugurated recurring community-serving programs such as Draw Jam, Over Here Zine Fest, and our annual Weaving Circle.
- developed our collections, building from 13,752 objects to almost 21,000, with critical growth in strategically identified areas. facilitated access to those collections through approximately 100 distinct undergraduate class visits per academic year.
- made time to listen to one another and reflect upon our work together.
Exhibitions
An Unruly Assembly: Selections from the Culley Collection of Woodblock Prints
August 21, 2025–January 4, 2026
An Unruly Assembly was the first comprehensive exhibition of the Culley Collection of Woodblock Prints at Pomona College, a historically significant and rarely seen trove of relief prints by avant-garde artists in the early twentieth century in Europe and the United States.
Organized by Victoria Sancho Lobis, the Sarah Rempel and Herbert S. Rempel Class of 1923 Director of the museum and professor of art history, in collaboration with curatorial assistants Tristen Alizée Leone ’26 and Arivumani Srivastava ’26; additional research and interpretive texts contributed by students in the Fall 2024 course Print Cultures: History and Theory (Department of Art History, Pomona College) taught by Professor Lobis
Foundational research for this project was made possible by a Hirsch Research Initiation Grant. Support for the realization of the exhibition was provided by the Judith A. Cion ’65 Fund in Endowment for Student-Curated Exhibitions and the Eva Cole and Clyde Matson Memorial Fund. The collection catalogue accompanying this exhibition was supported by a grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. Additional support for the publication was provided by Meg and Mark Hausberg.
Two-Way Stretch: Electronic Drawing in Early Animation and Computer Art
August 21, 2025–January 4, 2026
Among a trio of exhibitions devoted to the art of drawing that accompanied An Unruly Assembly was Two-Way Stretch, which explored electronic drawing in experimental animation and computer art of the twentieth century. Titled after a 1969 computer plotter drawing by Frederick Hammersley that was on view, the exhibition featured both moving image works (such as Norman McLaren’s drawings on the optical track in his early 16mm films from the 1940s) and works on paper (a grid of rare works by Hammersley in the Benton’s collection).
Organized by Solveig Nelson, curator of photography and new media. Research assistance on Frederick Hammersley was contributed by Willa Frank PO ’25.
Line, Smudge, Shade: Contemporary Drawing in Our Los Angeles
August 21, 2025–January 4, 2026
Line, Smudge, Shade offered Benton visitors the opportunity to see truly contemporary artistic production in Los Angeles with more than thirty drawings created by sixteen contemporary artists from across LA County. The featured drawings—made from a wide range of materials and techniques, including ash from the Eaton Fire in Altadena of early 2025—reflected the dynamism and creative energy of the region these artists call home.
Organized by Solomon Salim Moore, academic curator, with HeeSoo Alice Lee, curatorial assistant
Support for this exhibition was provided by the Janet Inskeep Benton ’79 Endowed Fund and the Eva Cole and Clyde Matson Memorial Fund.
Art Hall Projects 1: Manuel López
August 21, 2025–June 28, 2026
In the first-ever commission for the Benton’s Art Hall and the third component of the museum’s fall celebration of drawings, Los Angeles–based artist Manuel López created a site-specific wall mural and drawings that were on view in the Benton’s Art Hall for nearly a full year. The works depicted landscapes from and scenes of daily life in East LA, which serves López as both a home and a muse.
Organized by Solomon Salim Moore, academic curator
Support for this installation was provided by the Pasadena Art Alliance.
The Meditative Object
February 21–June 28, 2026
Across religious traditions, the practice of contemplation has been and remains integral to cultivating an awareness of self, the divine, and the nature of reality. The Meditative Object featured artworks that have served as direct or suggestive objects of such contemplation, from a Buddhist figure that dates from the first to fourth century CE to modern abstraction in Southern California.
Organized by Victoria Sancho Lobis, the Sarah Rempel and Herbert S. Rempel Class of 1923 Director of the museum and professor of art history, and curatorial assistant Tristen Alizée Leone ’26
With special thanks to Professors Ana Maria Dorrance, Jordan Kirk, Zhiru Ng, and Omer Shah for their willingness to engage in discussions of meditation that helped shape this exhibition
John Sparagana: Interference Patterns
February 21–June 28, 2026
John Sparagana: Interference Patterns was the first survey to present the artist’s decades-long project of interrogating mass media images, most centrally in collages. Catalyzed by the media landscape that emerged after September 11, 2001, and the US-led wars that followed, Sparagana developed a meticulous process of splicing, duplicating, and remixing strips of paper—all sourced from fashion and news magazines, commercial catalogues, and comic books—into unstable visual fields. This exhibition featured Sparagana’s process across several different series, all directed at dislodging familiar images from their ideological homes.
Organized by Solveig Nelson, curator of photography and new media, with Max Uehara, post-baccalaureate curatorial fellow
Funding support for this project was provided by the Eva Cole and Clyde Matson Memorial Fund and the Janet Inskeep Benton ’79 Endowed Fund.
Creative Content
An Unruly Assembly: The Culley Collection of Woodblock Prints
Until 2025, the Culley Collection had only been previously exhibited or published in fragmentary form; thus the exhibition (see page 8) and this accompanying catalogue mark the first comprehensive presentation and rigorous assessment of the collection of 187 works, offering a revelatory account of how avant-garde artists early in the twentieth century revitalized one of the oldest artistic techniques.
The lavishly produced catalogue contains new, vibrant photography of works from the collection—a trove of prints by well-known artists such as Josef Albers, Rockwell Kent, Käthe Kollwitz, and Emil Nolde, as well as artists whose legacies deserve more attention, including Léonard Tsugouharu Foujita, Cecil Wray Goodchild, Moissey Kagan, and Emma Schlangenhausen.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Victoria Sancho Lobis is the Sarah Rempel and Herbert S. Rempel Class of 1923 Director of the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College, where she also serves as a professor of art history.
Armin Kunz is an art historian and the owner of the prints and drawings dealership C. G. Boerner, based in New York and Düsseldorf, Germany.
Erin Sullivan Maynes is associate curator of Prints and Drawings at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where she has curated numerous exhibitions, most recently Deep Cuts: Block Printing Across Cultures.
Foundational research for this project was made possible by a Hirsch Research Initiation Grant. The collection catalogue was supported by a grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. Additional support for the publication was provided by Meg and Mark Hausberg
Videos
The Benton was once again honored to collaborate with independent filmmaker Noah Rosenberg on the production of three long-form videos that represent some of the scope of the museum’s activities throughout the 2025–2026 academic year.
An Unruly Assembly: The Culley Collection of Woodblock Prints
This thirteen-minute video documented the preparation of the exhibition An Unruly Assembly and features the exhibition curators and catalogue authors discussing the historical context and contemporary significance of this collection of 187 woodcuts.
Video: https://youtu.be/2BNECT6IYcc
Studio Visit with Manuel López
Shot over the course of several visits with the artist Manuel López in his East LA neighborhood and inside his studio, this eight-minute video garnered 14,000 views in two months, the highest number of views on the Benton’s YouTube page.
Video: https://youtu.be/DyY0wBODra8
The Benton as a Teaching Museum
Through interviews with the museum’s academic curator, faculty members, and students, this evergreen video explores the role of the Benton within its academic community. Members of this community discuss how access to an art museum enriches instruction across all disciplines of a liberal arts college—from the sciences to languages and literatures.
Video: https://youtu.be/O-2HwAKPwA4
Acquisitions
871 Total Objects Acquired in 2026
Before 2025: 19,963
After 2025: 20,834
519 photographs
161 drawings
58 prints
56 sculptures
42 paintings
15 collages
5 typography examples, including a colophon page
4 portfolio ases
3 tools and instruments
3 pots, jars, jugs
1 cuneiform tablet
1 installation
1 textile
1 decorative arts
1 wallpaper
Featured Acquisitions
Rembrandt van Rijn
Sheet of Studies: Head of the Artist, a Beggar Couple, Heads of an Old Man and Old Woman, etc., 1632
Etching on laid paper 3 7/8 × 4 in. (9.84 × 10.16 cm)
Pomona College Collection, Dr. Lucille M. Paris Fund and Walter and Elise Mosher Memorial Fund, P2026.3.1
A provocative reflection of the intersection of drawing and printmaking, the study sheet is also an important self-portrait of one of art history’s best loved figures, demonstrating a perpetual public interest in the private sketching practices of seventeenth-century artists.
Robbert Flick
Ocean 1, 1980
Vintage gelatin silver print on paper
16 5/16 × 22 3/16 in. (41.43 × 56.36 cm)
Pomona College Collection, Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, P2025.28.48
The Benton is delighted to be the recipient of a transformative gift of photography from the collection of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser. Together with work by Robbert Flick, this generous gift of 95 photographs includes key examples from Berenice Abbott, André Kertész, Pablo Ortiz Monasterio, Eliot Porter, Edmund Teske, Brett Weston, and Minor White.
Steve Roden
leafing through (crystals), 2013
Oil on linen 84 × 60 3/16 × 2 in. (213.36 × 152.88 × 5.08 cm)
Pomona College Collection, Steve and Sari Roden Family Trust, P2025.11.61
leafing through (crystals) came to the Benton as part of a large gift from the estate of Steve Roden, who produced conceptual art that integrates drawing, painting, sculpture, and multisensory experience. Roden’s work was featured in several exhibition projects at the Pomona College Museum of Art, the predecessor to the Benton, and this meaningful acquisition reflects the fruitful and extended collaboration between the museum and the artist.
Saul Steinberg
Untitled, 1988–92
Mixed media on paper 17 1/8 × 23 1/8 in. (43.5 × 58.74 cm)
Pomona College Collection, Gift of The Saul Steinberg Foundation, P2025.13.67
One of a generous gift of 75 works from The Saul Steinberg Foundation, this untitled mixed media work encapsulates many of the qualities for which the artist is known: a spare graphic style, a keen observational eye, and a playful yet knowing take on the built environment, contemporary culture, and philosophical puzzles.
John Sparagana
Themesong Variation (empty speech) #1, 2015
Archival inkjet prints, sliced and mixed on paper, mounted on dibond 69 3/16 × 51 3/4 in. (175.74 × 131.45 cm)
Pomona College Collection, Gift of Mark and Judy Bednar, P2025.14.1
An exemplar of Sparagana’s mesmerizing and obsessive practice of splicing and remixing mass mediated images, Themesong Variation (empty speech) #1 was included in the Benton’s landmark survey of the artist’s work in Spring 2026. His manipulation of digital and popular imagery forms a trenchant commentary on how we receive and metabolize the visual culture that surrounds us.
Chakaia Booker
Untitled, 2022
Woodcut and lithography on paper
47 × 30 15/16 in. (119.38 × 78.58 cm)
Pomona College Collection, Restricted gift of Janet Inskeep Benton ’79, P2026.4.1
This acquisition celebrates Booker’s distinctive method of printmaking in which different techniques are combined with collage elements, resulting in a multilayered construction. Booker visited the Pomona campus in Fall 2024, offering both a public talk and printmaking workshop.
Service
106 college-level class visits
1,765 college-level and graduate students served
540 works of art pulled for class visits
37 academic programs
38 academic partners
890 local schooldren engaged
33 interns and fellows
66 community programs
121 total programs
THE POMONA COLLEGE COMMUNITY
Academic Engagement
Solomon Salim Moore
Academic Curator
106 college-level class visits
1,765 college-level and graduate students served
For the 2025–26 academic year we tried something new: collaborating with individual Pomona College faculty on extended engagements with our collections. Two professors from the Romance Languages & Literatures Department, Óscar Ulloa and Thomas Muzart, brought students in their advanced languages seminars to the Benton to “adopt” an object in our collections for close study over the course of an entire semester. Both of their courses—Illicit Inscriptions and Memorializing Minority Subjects in Francophone Literature, respectively— concluded with formal student presentations for Benton Museum staff and the wider Claremont Colleges community.
Óscar A. Ulloa
Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish | Pomona College
Salim has curated specific viewings of Latin American art from the Benton’s collection to further enhance our class visits thematically, and he always delivers such a superb introduction to the art that he undoubtedly piques students’ interest. I am a language materialist, and my approach to second-language acquisition is tied to the performativity of language and its corporeality, highlighting the sensorial semiotic aspect of words. I assigned the students reaction papers in Spanish on what they saw at the Benton. The students were able to do such a great job because Salim guided them and presented the art with care and aplomb, facilitating their approach to the works with both openness and direction.
Char Miller
W.M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History | Pomona College
My students and I have loved working with Salim. He has a deft way of introducing us to some of the key elements of a painting, object, or photograph, and the patience to let us find our own way into the artwork and its manifold meanings.
Colleen Rosenfeld
Phebe Estelle Spalding Professor of English | Pomona College
My students and I have benefited from the invisible touch of Salim’s curatorial hand in selecting the works we might look at as well as the light touch of his extensive knowledge of historical and material conditions of production and preservation, which he readily provides on invitation, always while also allowing us the space to conduct our more ranging and rambling close studies.
Zala Volcic
Associate Professor of Media Studies | Pomona College
Salim’s thoughtful curation and pedagogical care transformed the museum from a passive exhibition space into an active classroom, crucial for students’ critical engagement with visual culture and historical memory....These museum sessions became pivotal learning experiences for our students, helping them understand that art is not ancillary to their coursework but central to how societies remember, contest, and narrate themselves.... Students repeatedly commented to me on how “seen” and intellectually respected they felt in his sessions and how his guidance pushed their own research projects and critical thinking to a higher level than would have been possible in the classroom alone.
THE POMONA COLLEGE COMMUNITY
Featured Academic Programs
Stretch Yourself: Drawing with Oscilloscopes and Historic Computers
September 19, 2025
To celebrate the opening of the exhibition Two-Way Stretch, Scripps College visiting professor of art history Zsofi Valyi-Nagy demonstrated artist Vera Molnar’s use of both screen-based technologies and computer plotter drawing processes while discussing the exhibition with curator Solveig Nelson, and Pomona College associate professor of art Mark Allen and associate professor of music Joti Rockwell offered a performance with a theremin, oscilloscopes, and a modular synthesizer—all technologies featured in the exhibition.
Artist Talk: Manuel López
November 6, 2025
Art Hall Projects featured artist López spoke in early November on his influences and his artistic practice, covering Picasso, The Simpsons, and the murals he grew up with around his neighborhood. The soundbite we posted from this talk was viewed more than 10,000 times across our Instagram and YouTube pages.
Modern Relief Printing, A Cross-County Dialogue
November 13–14, 2025
In honor of the exhibition An Unruly Assembly, the Benton invited print scholars across LA County and Leipzig-based woodblock printmaker Christiane Baumgartner for study sessions and an artist’s talk, culminating in an exhibition tour of LACMA’s Deep Cuts: Block Printing Across Cultures, which featured a piece by Baumgartner.
A Conversation with Anne Searle Bent
April 24, 2026
In conjunction with the exhibition The Meditative Object, collector and lender to the exhibition Anne Searle Bent offered her thoughts on the role of drawings as intercessor objects and read from her book Art and the Experience of the Divine.
Tibetan Buddhist Monks from Gaden Shartse Monastery
April 15–17, 2026
For The Meditative Object, the Benton hosted a group of Buddhist monks who, during their three-day visit, meticulously created and then erased an elaborate sand mandala—a lesson in concentration, compassion, generosity, and impermanence—and led a guided meditation session.
¡NoNoNosQuitanLoBailado!: Una Tarde de Arte, Baile y Canto
April 30, 2026
The culmination of a sustained academic collaboration with Professor Óscar Ulloa, this evening in April featured student presentations on selected works of art, dinner, and joyous performances by Los Soneras de Scripps (Son jarocho ensemble from Scripps) and Changüí Majadero (the LA-based Afro-Cuban ensemble).
Academic Partners at Pomona College
(unless otherwise noted)
37 academic and student-oriented programs
38 academic partners
5C Muslim Student Association
Asian American Resource Center Center for Asian Pacific American Students (Pitzer College)
Chicano Latino Student Affairs (both Pomona and The Claremont Colleges Services)
English
Environmental Analysis
Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (Scripps College)
History
Humanities Studio
Intercollegiate Department of Chicano/a Latino/a Studies (5Cs)
Latin American Studies
McAlister Center for Religious Activities (The Claremont Colleges Services)
Modern Languages & Literatures (Claremont McKenna College)
Music
Native Indigenous Resource Center
Office of Black Student Affairs (The Claremont Colleges Services)
Office of Institutional Diversity (Harvey Mudd College)
Physics and Astronomy
Queer Resource Center
Romance Languages and Literatures
Spanish, Latin American, and Caribbean Literatures and Cultures (Scripps College)
Studio Art
Local Schoolchildren
Rich Deely
K-12 Education Specialist
890 local students engaged
Over the course of this past academic year, our talented team of Education Outreach interns expanded the Benton’s repertoire of K–12 lessons beyond third graders to reach more students than ever before in second grade, fourth grade, sixth grade, and high school. The result is in the numbers: this team engaged 890 local students across multiple sessions each semester, for a grand total of 1,745 points of contact for 2025–26. The team also spent considerable time planning, practicing, and presenting other specialized educational experiences, including at Fall Family Art Nights for local public-school children and their families, for campus affinity groups at the college, and in the mental health/wellness intervention space at the high school. Their work has resonated far outside the campus walls to schools around the community. It has been gratifying to see these talented college students build their skills over the course of this year and contribute to the museum’s student-designed lesson materials and resources for future engagement with K–12 audiences.
Loretta Wolfinbarger
Fourth Grade Teacher | Chaparral School
Your presentation brought landscapes to life in a new way for our students. The visuals, the thoughtful links to what they already knew, and your approach to the topic helped students see the content from a fresh perspective.... We are truly grateful for the energy, care, and expertise you shared with our students. It was a pleasure to have you with us.
Carolyn Magallanes
Third Grade Teacher | Sumner/Danbury School
Our third graders had such a great time on their field trip to the Benton Museum. It tied in beautifully with their Native American studies unit, giving them the chance to see real artifacts, artwork, and cultural pieces up close. The museum staff was patient, engaging, and wonderful with the kids, helping them connect what they’ve learned in class to the world around them. It was a truly positive experience that the students won’t forget.
Annika Gauthier SC ’26
Education Outreach Intern
As someone interested in the field of Museum Education, becoming an Education Outreach intern has been such an amazing opportunity to learn and gain experience working with a broad range of ages, from elementary school to high school. Rich Deely’s support through the process— providing resources, offering the opportunity to create our own lesson plans, his flexibility in making sure each intern got to explore what they were interested in—was incredibly helpful in the development of my teaching practice and has solidified my interest in museum education.
Interns and Emerging Museum Professionals
The Benton’s robust, paid internship program and the opportunities it offers for post-baccalaureate and early professional training make it a leader among college art museums. The Benton introduces the world of museum work—from operations to curatorial research and writing—to students at all levels, including this year’s intensive research on the photographer Milton Rogovin, the artist Mavis Pusey, and the artist Saul Steinberg. Many alumni of these training programs have moved on to careers in the museum and gallery worlds.
Rachel Du Mont-Greenlee
Claremont Graduate University Fellow
Some of the most compelling days at the Benton involved art handling and consulting with the collections. Additionally, researching potential cultural objects for upcoming exhibitions was particularly interesting, including visits to Honnold Library to observe and handle rare manuscripts. I also appreciated having access to the roundtable staff meetings, which provided valuable insight into the inner workings of a museum.
Max Uehara
Post-Baccalaureate Curatorial Fellow
This year, as the Benton’s post-baccalaureate fellow, I contributed to conversations on acquisitions and the permanent collection; assisted with writing for exhibitions and catalogues; managed exhibition checklists, loan letters, and design maquettes for installations; and led gallery talks for exhibitions at the museum. I’m thankful for the opportunity to have worked on these exhibitions and to have learned from such incredible artists like John Sparagana during installation.
31 interns
1 post-baccalaureate fellow
1 graduate student fellow
All student internships at the Benton Museum of Art are paid internships. We gratefully acknowledge the following people and organizations that have made this possible in the last fiscal year.
Aramont Charitable Foundation
Janet Inskeep Benton ’79 Endowed Fund
Josephine Bump ’76 Curatorial Intern Fund
Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internship Program
Graham “Bud” ’55 and Mary Ellen ’56 Kilsby Endowment for Student Interns
Edwin A. and Margaret K. Phillips Fund
2025–26 INTERNS
ACADEMIC PROGRAMMING
Emmett Bolls ’28
COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT
Nadia Hsu ’27
Anya Lin ’28
Cleo McHenry HMC ’29
COMMUNITY ARTS ENGAGEMENT
Yadira Barrales Lopez ’26
Brenda Rodriguez ’26
CURATORIAL
Tristen Alizée Leone ’26
Clark Louis PZ ’26
Arivumani Srivastava ’26
EDUCATION OUTREACH
Annika Gauthier SC ’26
Roofie Konshie ’28
Addy LaForge ’28
Serena Steele ’29
Korey Wells ’28
GALLERY TALK DIRECTORS
Reilly Costello ’28
Audrey Green SC ’27
AnnaSophia Nicely ’27
Nicolas Riley CMC ’27
MUSEUM AMBASSADORS
Teresa Chang ’29
Anson Chau ’29
Katherine Saylor Cole SC ’26
Philippe Krasnov ’29
Matilda McKinzie ’29
Casey Maina ’29
Jesse Robbins PZ ’28
Jasmine Aviles Trujillo ’28
Sonia Voloshinov ’29
Jessica Zhang ’29
MUSEUM REGISTRATION
Ava Monheit PZ ’27
Valery Reyes CMC ’26
SKYSPACE MANAGEMENT AND PROGRAMMING
René Garcia III ’27
LOCAL RESIDENTS
Featured Events
66 free public programs
9 community partners
Weaving Circle
July 13, 2025
Tongva Basketry Collective
January 17–18, 2026
In its ongoing effort to serve as a responsible steward of the Native American cultural items in its care, the Benton annually hosts members of local Native American communities to demonstrate, preserve, and celebrate Indigenous creative practice.
Draw Jam
October 18, 2025
This all-day event gave participants the opportunity to make sketches, collages, and wildstyle drawings alongside professional artists, engaging both on- and offcampus communities of all ages in collective creativity and embodied learning.
Over Here Zine Fest
November 1, 2025
Partnering once again with Curious Publishing, the Benton was one of three venues across Claremont to host self-publishing artists and printmakers from across LA County and the Inland Empire for workshops and pop-up stalls.
Artist-Led Workshops
December 2025 and June 2026
In the fall and spring semesters, artists with works on view or related to current exhibitions—Carly Lake, Joel Freeman, and Stephanie Mercado—led workshops for the public on techniques and processes featured in the galleries.
Creating Iftar Meal Kits
March 5, 2026
The annual collaboration between the Benton, Claremont Canopy, and the 5C Muslim Student Association once again assembled Ramadan care packages for local families, including personalized messages to the recipients from students and community partners.
Summer Film Series
June 2026
The Benton celebrated the start of summer and the final month of the spring exhibitions with another outdoor film series selected by film buff and visitor services manager Nilofar Naraghi. The films all connected to the exhibitions on view and remain a popular—and free!—event for Claremont residents.
Visitors
Attendance
25,944 In-Person Total Attendance
July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026
6,742 event attendance
1,756 class visits
890 school programs
16,556 front-door attendance
From Our Visitors
I love that mural, the one by Manuel López. I want to buy that wallpaper when you’re done with it. Auction it off, I will be the highest bidder!
SEPTEMBER 2025
Okay, okay, okay!
SEPTEMBER 2025
We loved seeing the woodblock prints. We’ve never seen so many in one place and with such variation. Wow!
DECEMBER 2025
If I could have been a student at Pomona now instead of 30 years ago, I might have changed my major to art. This is such a wonderful resource for young minds. DECEMBER 2025
We are here to check out colleges for our son; we all really enjoyed the campus and downtown Claremont. This museum is such a wonderful place, the students are lucky to have this!
MARCH 2026
We really enjoyed coming here throughout the years. It has been wonderful having this space as a student. I will look forward to coming back for Alumni Weekend.
MAY 2026
Art is one of the few things that calms my daughter down. Thank you for being open and accessible.
MAY 2026
Digital Presence
Erika Ito
Communications Manager
In my first full year at the Benton, I produced a mix of lo-fi and hi-fi content for our digital platforms—visual media serving the visual arts. The lo-fi content included short videos for Instagram and YouTube that featured our student interns, staff, and contemporary artists. On the hi-fi end, we worked once again with independent filmmaker Noah Rosenberg on three long-form videos, which appeared on our YouTube channel. He also edited these videos into short teasers, which we posted on our social media platforms.
As I continue to experiment with various types of content, I’ve noticed that our social media pages see the most engagements (the number of likes, comments, and 38 shares) when we hear straight from the artists about their processes and practices—like the astounding response of 14,000 views of the video made by Noah that went inside Manuel López’s studio and neighborhood. With the rise of digital content and the general wariness about the fate of art in the age of AI, I feel that the Benton’s online presence should reflect and amplify the work we do to create a space for honest artistic expression. Tracking the increase in the amount of engagement across all of our platforms and the growing awareness of the Benton overall, I am confident that this approach is resonating with our digital visitors.
INSTAGRAM
7,400 FOLLOWERS
Up 30% over past year
148,400 AUDIENCE REACH
Up 85% over past year
30,300 AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT
Number of likes, comments, shares, and saves
Up 333% over past year
YOUTUBE
477 SUBSCRIBERS
Up 112% over past year
36,800 VIEWS
Up 982% over past year
967 HOURS
Total watch time on all Benton videos
Up 981 over past year
WEBSITE
193,860 TOTAL VIEWS
91,663 TOTAL USERS
MOST VISITED WEBPAGES
James Turrell’s Skyspace
Benton homepage
Prometheus
HIGHEST ENGAGEMENT
Tibetan Monk Visit
Over Here Zine Fest Announcement
Collab with Artist Sterling Wells
Financial Report
Operating Budget
July 1, 2025–June 30, 2026
Operating Budget does not include maintenance for buildings and grounds, utilities, and administrative services, all of which are supported through centralized Pomona College departments.
$1,499,507 Staff Compensation
$193,261 Exhibitions
$184,676 Contract Employment
$161,635 General Operation
$140,650 Publications
$61,882 Programs
$50,121 Student Employment
$36,117 Collection and Care Research
$26,299 Marketing
$7,208 Advancement
Funding Sources
July 1, 2025–June 30, 2026
$2,361,356 Total
$1,747,906 Pomona College Operating Budget
$505,967 Restricted and Endowed Funds
$88,809 External Grants
$18,674 Museum Revenue
Support
Friend Spotlight: David Knaus
"David believes that direct access to art can be transformative, and he values every opportunity to speak with students about their experiences contributing to exhibitions and connecting with our collections."
An avid art collector and generous patron of museums from the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles to the Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts, Friend of the Benton David Knaus has made it his mission to support arts institutions focused on education and scholarship. David’s collecting interests span photography, new media, and conceptual art from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. He was a founding member of photography councils at the Getty, Tate Modern, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and he has helped to facilitate museum and university acquisitions of several major photographic archives. Currently, David serves as chair of the board of High Desert Test Sites, Andrea Zittel’s conceptual art nonprofit, and as president of the Claire Falkenstein Foundation.
David first became connected to the arts at Pomona College after seeing the landmark 2011 exhibition It Happened at Pomona. What drew him in was Pomona’s place in the history of contemporary art, and he has stayed connected because of our dedication to students and to the local community. David believes that direct access to art can be transformative, and he values every opportunity to speak with students about their experiences contributing to exhibitions and connecting with our collections. He has been a vital partner to the Benton since our inception.
As a valued member of our Collection Assessment Committee, David works closely with director Victoria Sancho Lobis, curators, and fellow committee members to advise on the collecting interests of the museum, providing deep insight into how our photography and new media holdings can better serve our mission as a teaching museum. To that end, he has also donated several pieces from his personal collection.
Over the last two years, David has partnered with Solveig Nelson, the Benton’s curator of photography and new media, on an upcoming monographic exhibition of the work of photographer and conceptual artist Robert Cumming. As the managing director of the Robert Cumming Archive in Yucca Valley, California, he has been instrumental in bringing both the exhibition and its accompanying publication to life.
We are deeply grateful to David for his generosity, expertise, and hands-on commitment to the Benton’s educational mission. We invite you to experience the fruits of that partnership firsthand when we open Split-Second Misreads: Robert Cumming and the Fabrication of Illusion on February 20, 2027.
To learn more about how you can support the Benton and become a Friend, visit pomona.edu/museum/support.