RUMOCA announces 2026-27 exhibition season exploring humanity and the natural world

The Rowan University Museum of Contemporary Art (RUMOCA) has announced its 2026-2027 season, featuring four curated exhibitions exploring our relationship with the natural world. 

“Our upcoming season at RUMOCA’s 301 High Street gallery invites visitors to engage with artworks and objects that encourage thoughtful reflection on our place in the world and the ways we relate to the environments around us,” said RUMOCA Director and Chief Curator Mary Salvante.

Through painting, photography and multimedia works, artists explore climate change, natural resources, sustainable design and the ways plants and animals shape our understanding of the environment.

Committed to presenting diverse forms of contemporary art with thought-provoking subject matter, RUMOCA serves as a vibrant cultural destination for the Rowan community, South Jersey and the surrounding region.

All exhibits are FREE and open to the public at 301 High Street in Glassboro and Rowan’s Westby Hall Gallery.

26|27 Exhibition Details:
301 High Street West

Diane Burko
Diane Burko: Extraction, A Dialogue of Extremes
August 24 - October 17, 2026

Artist Diane Burko presents two bodies of work focused on extraction. One extracts scientific data depicting the chemical changes and flow of elements recorded in the Arctic that may help scientists understand climate change; the other examines how the extraction of natural resources from the Amazon rainforest accelerates climate change.

Guest curator Daniel Tucker
Eco-Social Realism
November 2 - December 19, 2026

Featured Artists: Paper Buck, Carolina Caycedo, Federico Cuatlacuatl, Alicia Grullon, Aislinn Pentecost Farren and Karyn Olivier

This regional exhibition features artists whose work examines how the places we build and the natural environments we live in can help us understand both the challenges of climate change and the solutions taking shape across our region.

Margarita Cabrera
Space in Between 
February 3 - March 13, 2027 

Artist Margarita Cabrera creates soft sculptures and paintings with border patrol uniforms and cochineal dye. By weaving stories from Indigenous and immigrant communities into the work, she reflects on the complexities of border regions and reclaims them as potent symbols of resilience. 

Eileen Neff
Through That Which Is Seen 
March 29 - May 22, 2027 

Through multimedia works, Eileen Neff explores recreated natural environments and the complex relationship between conservation and human intervention. Her work encourages viewers to consider how museums and cultural institutions shape our understanding of nature, history and humanity's role in the environment.

RUMOCA at Westby Hall

Emergence is Now
September 1 - December 9, 2026 

A selection of works from our permanent collection that provide a historical perspective on our current social and political environment. 

Picturing Motherhood 
February 3 - April 28, 2027 

A selection of works from our permanent collection that presents the artists’ interpretation of motherhood both as a mother and as a witness to motherhood. 

The Sister Chapel
Ongoing

The Sister Chapel was conceived in 1974 as a monumental “hall of fame” in which women’s achievements are presented from a female perspective. The artists collectively established uniform dimensions for the figure paintings and agreed that each canvas would depict a standing female “role model.” Diverse contemporary and historical women, deities and conceptual figures populate the all-female pantheon of The Sister Chapel.