Tang Exhibition Explores Art and Empathy

SARATOGA SPRINGS – Currently on display at the Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College is Where Words Falter: Art and Empathy. The exhibition presents art from the Tang collection, which together explores how we define, practice, and experience compassion and connection.

Empathy—the word derived from the German Einfüling, which translates literally to in-feeling—is a nuanced idea, and this exhibition asks visitors to consider their own understandings of it. What does it mean to recognize, share, and feel in the thoughts or experiences of another?

Through photography, painting, textile, and moving image—including many recent acquisitions that have not been shown at the Tang before—the exhibition will reflect on the ways art can support empathic feeling.

Art can be an emotional necessity, a tool for communing with one’s self and others. It can also help us make sense of the complexities of the past and present, offering ways to imagine and adapt toward a different—and perhaps more just—world. Where Words Falter encourages active aesthetic and emotional engagement and asks visitors to consider the ways in which empathy can induce more socially conscious action beyond the museum.

On display through December 18. Visit tang.skidmore.edu for more information.