The Department of Art and Design is excited to welcome Emily Culver and William Lamson as part of its Visiting Artists, Designers and Scholars Series for Fall 2025.

Each artist will spend two days on campus connecting with students and faculty, with free public talks scheduled during their visits. Both will speak in the Jay Wasson Idea Loft at the Robert W. Plaster Free Enterprise Center, 405 N. Jefferson Avenue, Springfield, Missouri 65897.

Emily Culver

Working primarily in sculpture and object-based art, Emily Culver explores themes like intimacy, (non)functionality, gender and identity through a bodily lens. Her current research draws from ideas in queerness, glitch feminism, Heideggerian philosophy and object-oriented ontology.

“The work doesn’t reveal itself all at once,” she said. “Instead, it builds meaning through intimate, layered encounters, and the viewer has an experience that deepens with time, energy and curiosity.”

Culver has shown her work nationally and internationally and has earned several awards and residencies, including a Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship and a residency at the James Castle House (Idaho).

She holds an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and is an assistant professor of jewelry and metalsmithing at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Culver schedule

Culver will visit the Springfield campus Sept. 30-Oct. 1. She will give a public talk 5:30 p.m. Sept. 30 at the Jay Wasson Idea Loft in the Robert W. Plaster Free Enterprise Center.

William Lamson

As an interdisciplinary artist based in New York, William Lamson works across video, performance, photography and sculpture. His projects often engage with natural systems and elemental forces, resulting in slow, durational works that evolve over time. His installations have unfolded in a wide range of environments, from the East River in New York to Chile’s Atacama Desert.

“My practice involves working with forces and systems to create generative artworks that develop over time,” he explained.

Lamson’s work has been shown at the Brooklyn Museum, the Moscow Biennial and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). He’s completed site-specific pieces for institutions like the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Center for Land Use Interpretation (Utah) and Storm King Art Center (New York).

He holds an MFA from Bard College and is an assistant professor in the Parsons MFA photography program in New York City, New York.

Lamson schedule

Lamson will visit the Springfield campus Nov. 4-5. He will give a public talk 5:30 p.m. Nov. 4 at the Jay Wasson Idea Loft in the Robert W. Plaster Free Enterprise Center.

Photos courtesy of the Department of Art and Design.

News edited by the Reynolds College Communications Team.

Sam Barnette is a writer for the Department of Art and Design. She holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Missouri State’s Department of Communication, Media, Journalism and Film. She is working toward an MS in Data Science and Analytic Storytelling at Truman State University.