On view at UGA fall 2027 to spring 2028
August 19, 2027–March 17, 2028
The Dodd Galleries at the Lamar Dodd School of Art will mark the school’s centennial anniversary with a major two-part special exhibition curated by Dodd alum Chad Alligood (MA ’09).
Alligood, a San Diego, CA–based curator, will helm the exhibitions on view during the Dodd Centennial in Fall 2027 and Spring 2028, at the invitation of Rachel Waldrop, Dodd Galleries Director. His focus: the national alumni footprint of a landmark institution in the Southeast that has quietly shaped the landscape of craft and contemporary art for 100 years.
Dodd centennial alumni exhibitions
Rotation I: August 19–November 5, 2027 / Rotation II: January 17–March 17, 2028
“The Dodd made me who I am as a curator and art historian. I walked in as a student and came out thinking differently about art and why it matters—because from day one, I was surrounded by The Dodd’s community of working artists and thinkers. I have a hunch that my fellow alumni share that experience. Now I get to hit the road, knock on studio doors, and find out. One hundred years of that kind of transformation deserves a real celebration.”
Alligood will additionally receive the Lamar Dodd School of Art’s 2027 Margie E. West Alumni Prize, awarded each year to an accomplished alumnus artist or scholar.
Nearly 100 years ago, the University of Georgia appointed the first faculty chair of a new Department of Art. Over the last century, the Lamar Dodd School of Art—ranked in the top art programs in the nation—has grown in reputation and impact, sending thousands of artists, scholars, designers, and educators out into the world
Dodd alumni make work and shape communities beyond Athens on a regional and national scale. As of Summer 2026, Alligood has embarked on a national studio visit tour, connecting with Dodd alumni working in the field today.
If you are a Dodd alum and would like to be considered for a visit, fill out this brief form—we want to hear what you’re making!
The school intends to celebrate its centennial with a variety of public and alumni programs affiliated with the exhibition, including the annual Visiting Artists & Scholars Lecture Series, partner exhibitions on campus, and more. The Dodd Centennial will coincide with a university-wide celebration of various UGA art anniversaries through an integrated program, Year of the Arts.
About the curator
Chad Alligood is an art historian and curator who completed his second term as President of the Board of Voices in Contemporary Art (VoCA). A post-1900 art scholar, he is a graduate of the Getty Leadership Institute’s NextGen Executive Education Program for Museum Leaders. He previously served as Virginia Steele Scott Chief Curator of American Art at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California.
As curator at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, Alligood expanded the collection’s diversity and led the reinstallation of its postwar galleries. His exhibitions include Warhol’s Nature, The Beyond: Georgia O’Keeffe and Contemporary Art, the Quilt of Parks project for Bentonville, and State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now, which received an Excellence in Exhibition award from the American Alliance of Museums in 2015. State of the Art was featured on CBS Evening News and in The New York Times and Esquire. Research for the exhibition took him to nearly 1,000 artists’ studios nationwide.
From Perry, Georgia, Alligood earned a BA in the History of Art and Architecture from Harvard University and an MA with Distinction in Art History from the University of Georgia. He completed PhD coursework in Art History at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), taught art history at Brooklyn College, and has held fellowships at the Smith College Institute for Art Museum Studies (Kress Foundation), the Women’s International Study Center, and Cranbrook Art Museum (Graham Collections Fellowship).
