Patrons of the gallery opening mingle in the Athos Menaboni Gallery. Photo credit: Julia Banks.
The Kennesaw State University Geer College of the Arts unveiled two new gallery spaces on Oct. 24, 2026.
Located at the Geer College’s Arts District at Chastain Pointe, these new spaces offer both permanent and rotating exhibitions.
The first new gallery is the Athos Menaboni Gallery. This permanent exhibition features selections from the Zuckerman Museum’s collection of Italian artist Athos Menaboni’s work. Menaboni is famous for his oil paintings of birds.
The second gallery is the Emily Bourne Grigsby Gallery. The exhibit is named for the late philanthropist and opera singer Emily Bourne Grigsby; she passed in 2020 at age ninety-eight. This space is designed for rotating exhibitions, focusing on contemporary art and displaying student art pieces.
The inaugural exhibit in the Grigsby Gallery is “Woven Reflections: Reimagining the Karastan Archive.“
“Woven Reflections” brings together pieces from Mohawk Industries’s carpet and textiles archives and original pieces from Fall 2026 artist-in-residence Rowland Ricketts. It was co-curated by Ricketts and Assistant Professor of Textiles and Surface Design Amanda Britton.
“It’s exciting to be the inaugural exhibition in the space,” Ricketts told The Sentinel. “[It] brings a certain energy and excitement to it.”
Textile and design books line the walls of the “Woven Reflections” exhibition. Photo credit: Julia Banks.
The exhibit emphasizes both the finished rugs and the design process, including patterns, yarn, tuft samples and a wall of art books lining the walls. According to Ricketts, displaying the books was intentional to spark inspiration for attendees.
“We spend so much time online. [If] we want to research something, we’re going to go online. But in this archive, we have over two-thousand books that represent two-hundred years of design,” explained Ricketts. “There’s so much to mine there, and so much to learn that you’re not going to find online.”
These intricate rug designs are courtesy of Mohawk Industries archive. Photo credit: Julia Banks.
Co-curator Amanda Britton hopes that the exhibit will draw people and students from the North Georgia area.
“If [people] are from North Georgia, they’ve probably heard of Mohawk,” said Britton. “The carpet capital of the world is North Georgia. I hope that attracts people that…are not even interested in art.”
The Athos Menaboni Gallery is a permanent exhibition and is open Tuesday through Saturday.
“Woven Reflections” runs from Oct. 24 to Dec. 4. Information can be found on the Zuckerman Museum website.
