The Dayton Art Institute announced its full 2026 exhibition schedule in late December 2025, anchored by three major traveling shows and the debut of a new gallery dedicated to feminist art. Head curator Jerry Smith and Interim Director and President Mark Shaker are overseeing the programming year, which spans painting, photography, quilts, and works on paper.

The year opens Feb. 7 with a new feminist art gallery built around a significant donation from Cincinnati collectors Sara and Michelle Vance Waddell, a collection expected to eventually comprise approximately 500 works. On Feb. 21, the museum opens “Exploring Time: A Painter’s Perspective,” a traveling exhibition from London featuring large-scale watercolors by British artist Tony Foster, 79, who has spent decades documenting wilderness environments from the Arctic to the Amazon.

Later in the year, “Fighters for Freedom: William H. Johnson Picturing Justice” opens June 27 and runs through Sept. 13, presenting paintings by Johnson — an early 20th-century African American artist — that depict figures including Marian Anderson and George Washington Carver. The fall brings “Wall Power! Spectacular Quilts” (Oct. 17–Jan. 10), a traveling exhibition of large-format decorative quilts. The Dayton Art Institute is located on Riverview Avenue in Dayton, Ohio.

Source: Dayton Daily News