Libby Black: Along the way, in the rooms

Along the way, in the rooms is an immersive, site-responsive exhibition tracing the evolution of San Francisco State University professor and artist Libby Black from student to artist to educator. At its heart is a larger question: “How do art schools shape not only individual artists, but artistic communities, cultural identity, and regional histories?”

The exhibition functions as a three-dimensional map of Black’s artistic and educational journey, acknowledging the teachers, schools, students, and communities that shaped her. At a moment when arts institutions are closing—including Black’s alma mater, California College of the Arts—the exhibition is both celebration and elegy, reflecting on the irreplaceable role art schools have played in the Bay Area.

At its center, a reconstructed version of Black’s studio features a wall-size photograph, works by artists and educators who influenced her, and a series of ink drawings that revisit art history while centering women largely absent from her own education. Radiating outward are works by her students, including collaborative projects and installations rooted in foundational drawing assignments. Contributions by fellow SFSU faculty Liz Hernández and Sean McFarland expand the dialogue through faculty practice, student work, speculative history, photography, and drawing.

Drawing is the exhibition’s vital thread: a shared act of attention through which teachers and students learn to understand their place in the world. In an era of AI-generated imagery and disappearing art schools, the exhibition argues for the enduring value of drawing, mentorship, studio practice, and arts education as forms of collective human connection.