Meyers Gallery Current Exhibit

About Meyers Gallery

The Philip M. Meyers Jr. Memorial Gallery is located in the Steger Student Life Center in the heart of the University’s Main Street.  Situated across from the recreation center and the Tangeman Student Center, we are located in the hub of student life and bring visual culture and practice to the university at large as well as to the surrounding region.  The Meyers Gallery exhibitions address two main objectives: first to expose the wider university community to the practices within DAAP; and second to present exhibitions that address the practices of other colleges within the university, generally historic or scientific in focus.  The intention is to provide the university population with access to a greater understanding of the visual presentation of complex ideas and concepts.


The Meyers Gallery is staffed by current students in order to provide them with a range of knowledge and understanding of exhibition techniques and practices.  This experience provides student artists, art historians, and art educators a setting in which to explore and implement the theories and concepts of their academic and studio practices into a working setting.  DAAP Galleries employees are equipped with the necessary skills to present and discuss a variety of visual materials with a diverse audience, thus enabling them to better articulate the visual communication of complex ideas and to foster a better understanding of visual communication.

Current Exhibit


“What We Brought with Us”

What We Brought With Us

Dates: September 5, 2023 - November 22, 2023

Reception: Tuesday, October 17th, 5-7pm.

“What We Brought with Us" delves into the profound significance of the belongings people have carried with them when forced to flee persecution, suffering, and war. These personal objects hold immense symbolic weight, representing the intricate web of human relationships that constitute a settled life. However, beyond their material value, these items also embody hope—a seed that must take root in unfamiliar soil. When individuals are uprooted from their homes, the selection of their possessions may be hasty and chaotic, driven by urgency and confusion. Plus, along the journey to a new home, objects may be lost, traded, stolen, or abandoned due to their impracticality. What remains may acquire new meaning and be a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. “What We Brought with Us" invites us to question our relationship with possessions and each other. It prompts us to reflect on what truly matters to us and what we consider most precious. Does a single object have the power to represent a lost world?

Each of the eighteen photographs in “What We Brought with Us" represents a single object selected by a person whose time in exile was or is supported by Academy in Exile, the purpose of which is to harbor scholars and cultural producers at risk in order to advance academic freedom through its fellowship program.  These objects were carried by some of Academy in Exile’s fellows when they fled from their countries of origin to Germany where they were hosted by University of Duisburg-Essen, Free University of Berlin, Forum of Transregional Studies and Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) Essen.

“What We Brought with Us" was developed by Academy in Exile, which is now based at TU Dortmund, one of the three universities that comprise the University Alliance Ruhr, which is a University of Cincinnati International strategic partner.  University of Cincinnati Taft Humanities Center symposium, Humanities in Exile (October 17, 2023), is in conjunction with this exhibition.  UC offers both the exhibition and the symposium in the spirit of collaboration with one of its important international strategic partners, and with concern for those who are forced to live in exile as a result of oppression by authoritarian regimes around the world.

This exhibition will also be on view at the Goethe-Institut New York, located at 30 Irving Pl, New York, NY 10003, from October 18 to November 15, 2023. 

This extension highlights the universal relevance of the exhibition's themes, fostering broader dialogue and engagement.


Planning Your Visit

The Meyers Gallery

Hours: Sunday - Thursday 10am-5pm

Phone: 513-556-2839

Address: Room 418 (Ground Floor), Steger Student Life Center, 500 UC MainStreet, Cincinnati, OH 45221

Location and visiting instructions for the Meyers Gallery:

  • When visiting the Meyers Gallery, metered parking is located on Martin Luther King Dr. or in the Woodside or Campus Green Garages for an hourly fee. 
  • Enter campus from either MLK or the garages walk along Woodside Dr. past the new College of Business, and continue up the hill following the paver drive (UC Main Street). 
  • The Meyers Gallery is located halfway up the hill on the right-hand side in the Steger Student Life Center on the ground floor, directly across from Nippert Stadium. 

Directions: From ML King enter Woodside Dr. (Langsam Library) for Woodside Garage (accepts cash or credit). Walk up UC Main Street to the Steger Student Life Center. Gallery is on the right across from Nippert Stadium, see neon sign.

It may be helpful to view a campus map here.


Contact Information

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DAAP Galleries

513-556-2839

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