In recognition of Columbia College Chicago’s 135th anniversary, students collaborate with the school’s archivists and the Hokin Gallery to tell Columbia’s story.

Columbia College Chicago celebrates its 135th anniversary with the exhibit “135 Years in Art and Objects,” which runs through Nov. 18 at Columbia’s Hokin Gallery. The show was a collaboration among Associate Professor Erin McCarthy’s History of Chicago classes, College Archives and Special Collections, and Student Spaces for Art and Collaboration, which runs the Hokin. The experience gave students the opportunity to take an active role in researching and interpreting the college’s past. 

From a collection of artifacts presented by college archivists Heidi Marshall and Dominic Rossetti, students selected artifacts of interest, researched their background, and wrote the exhibition labels that accompany each item on display.  

“It’s a disciplined way to write — clear, factual, and without adjectives — and they really embraced it,” says McCarthy.  
The objects on display included posters, videos, and items such as ground-breaking shovels, with some pieces dating back to the 1890s, including a handwritten schedule of classes.  

One of those students, Caeli DiFranco, a junior majoring in Music Business, chose to write about a handwritten 1991 letter to Columbia from Pulitzer prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks, the first honorary degree recipient at Columbia who taught at Columbia from 1963 to 1969. 

“I was drawn to her cursive handwriting, because it felt so personal,” DiFranco says. “It feels special to have contributed to something that helps tell Columbia’s story.” 

For Heidi Marshall, Head of Archives & Special Collections, the project was equally rewarding. “Working with students is our pride and joy,” she says. “They bring archival records to life and connect the dots between Columbia’s past and the creative community it continues to foster today.” 

Marshall’s favorite object on display: a digitized 1996 video montage from the “Columbia College Electronic Newsletter” (CCEN). The student-run production captured the energy of the 1990s campus.  

“It encapsulates the ’90s in a minute and a half,” Marshall says. “It’s nostalgic, fast-paced, and perfectly Columbia.” 
 

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