OUMA Collects is an annual exhibition which highlights selected works from the permanent collection of Oglethorpe University Museum of Art. The goal of the museum’s permanent collection is to benefit students and faculty by bringing the classroom in to the museum.

In years past, approximately 98% of acquisitions came through the generosity of our donors. With the debut of the OUMA Student Diversity Committee in 2020, we determined to support diversity initiatives of the university by committing ourselves to diversity, equity, and inclusion in our collection practices. We look to both the diversity of our own student body and to the diversity of Brookhaven and metro Atlanta as our inspiration and guide.

It was with this vision and a desire to include works of art by Latinx and Hispanic artists that we acquired a painting by a remarkably accomplished freshman student, Sophia Sobrino ’25. Prior to starting her studies at Oglethorpe University in fall 2021, this award-winning multimedia artist had already debuted her first solo exhibition at the Consulate General of Mexico in Atlanta. The painting OUMA acquired, like much of Sobrino’s oeuvre, speaks to her experience of life in the U.S.A. and her Mexican heritage. Sobrino says this painting explores, “the concept of finding self-identity through reflection, literally and metaphorically.”

Also on view are various works on paper of French 19th and 20th century origins generously donated by Dr. and Mrs. Michael Schlossberg and three oils by Henry Hammond Ahl given by Caroline Lee Jacobs Henderson.