Exhibitions

First Friday Reception | February 6 | 5–8pm The South Bend Museum of Art is proud to present the 2026 Scholastic Art Awards Exhibition, celebrating the creativity and achievement of young artists from the Northwest Indiana and Southwest Michigan region. This regional program represents 19 counties and recognizes outstanding work created by 7th–12th grade students

First Friday Reception | March 6 | 5–8pm This exhibition presents David Lester Learn’s Urban Archaeology sculptures (1980s–1990s) alongside his recent Entanglements paintings (2009–present), staging a dialogue for the first time between two important series and including many works that have never been shown before.  Learn began his practice of “urban archaeology” in New York

January 24–March 22, 2026 Held annually in South Bend, Indiana, the Performing Media Festival (PMF) features artists from around the world who explore emerging technologies and cross disciplinary boundaries to create new works of integrated media. As a festival partner and venue, SBMA is showing three new time-based video works: Julie Zhu and Sanna Fogelvik’s

First Friday Reception and Artist Talk | November 7 | 5–8pmArt League Artist Talks: Allison Baker | 5:30 pm Free. Please register here. Can a monument be a form for resistance? Can it celebrate ordinary people rather than state power? Allison Baker’s large concrete sculptures reimagine monuments through the lens of the aspirations and struggles of the

First Friday Reception | December 5 | 5–8pm Some flux presents a new video by Filipino–Mexican American artist Manny Orozco (he/they). Using computer-generated animations and images drawn from Filipino culture, Orozco creates “vignettes of distorted memories” that explore diasporic experience. 

First Friday Reception | December 5 | 5–8pm, Remarks at 5:30 The South Bend Museum of Art is pleased to sponsor an exhibition of work by its faculty and its adult and youth students. Light refreshments and holiday cheer will be served.

First Friday Reception: October 3, 5 – 8 pm This dynamic exhibition surveys recent art made by members of the Indiana Women’s Caucus for Art (IWCA). Working in an array of media–from oil paint and ceramics to felted wool, found objects, and fresco–the artists explore our relation with the environment, place, and generational legacies. Rather

First Friday Reception: October 3, 5 – 8 pm Now in its 33rd iteration, the South Bend Museum of Art’s biennial exhibition showcases the creative innovation of artists working in the Midwest. This year’s artists share what juror Scott Vincent Campbell calls a “sense of tension or tensile strength ….the ability to stretch without breaking,”

First Friday Reception: August 1, 5–8 pm Leto’s videos document the artist completing physical tasks, or “embodied research,” that queer modes of labor and juxtapose futility with humor.

First Friday Reception: August 1, 5–8 pm Helfrich and Tinker’s large-scale portraits and wall drawings use charcoal dust and printmaking techniques to explore imperfection and impermanence.