Student-run Rabbit Gallery open through Monday in downtown Appleton

The Rabbit Gallery is back after a two-year absence.

The week-long pop-up art gallery organized, curated, and run by Lawrence University students returned to downtown Appleton this week for the first time since 2019. It was on hold the past two years because of pandemic protocols.

The gallery, featuring artwork from more than 20 Lawrence students and three community artists opened Wednesday in a space inside City Center Plaza, 100 W. College Ave. It will remain open through Monday, June 6. Times are 3 to 8 p.m. June 3, noon to 7 p.m. June 4, 2 to 6 p.m. June 5, and 2 to 8 p.m. June 6.

The Rabbit Gallery is part of an entrepreneurship practicum led by Gary Vaughan, coordinator of Lawrence’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program and lecturer of economics. It gives students an opportunity to plan, coordinate, and execute a gallery on their own.

The gallery features photography, poetry, paintings, and sculpture.

Sophomore Izzy Allison, curator for the gallery and a member of the marketing team, said students in the entrepreneurship program divided into teams early in Spring Term to begin preparations for the pop-up gallery.

“In the first few weeks of Spring Term, we meet, discuss finding a location, figure out the teams: who is doing marketing, who is on financial, who is finding the space, who is doing curation,” she said. “Once we get a space, we get everything set up and send out a call for art.”

Allison, an art history major from Denver, played a lead role in choosing the art and hanging it.

“This has definitely been great for me as I want to end up going into museums,” she said. “This has been a great way to learn about curatorship and how to run a gallery basically without any help. The students involved are doing everything.”

The art on display is for sale.

The gallery includes a fund-raising component for KidsGive, a nonprofit program run by Lawrence students and alumni as part of the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program. Its mission is to support education in Sierra Leone and promote education in the United States about African and Sierra Leonean life and culture.