Veterans Art Gallery

Creative Expression Shaped by Military Service

We are pleased to be able to offer regular exhibitions of Veterans Art in the new C. Kenneth Wright Pavilion. This space is a natural extension of our efforts to provide veterans a safe place, free from judgment and convention, to tell their stories in their own words and images.

Currently on view through Memorial Day is “Sacred Scenes: American Parks and Battlefields” featuring the photography of Amanda Ransom and Frank Lee Ruggles.

Face coverings are required. No reservations needed, just walk in.

The Photography of Amanda Ransom

Amanda Ransom is a US Army veteran, wife, and mother. She served in the Army from 2010 until 2013, when her tour was cut short because of illness. She uses photography as a therapeutic outlet and hopes to share this method of stress relief with fellow veterans and others who are struggling. She has used the camera as a tool to overcome stress and social anxiety and as an important means of self-expression. In her photographs, Ransom strives to bring awareness to America’s beauty and history. A self-taught photographer, she specializes in macrophotography and enjoys capturing beauty in the smallest details.

The Photography of Frank Lee Ruggles

Frank Lee Ruggles — who describes himself as the “Warrior-Artist”— drew on his creative eye and his physical endurance (acquired during paratrooper training) to document the oft-threatened natural beauty of our country during a 5,000-day, 100,000-mile journey that took him through 315 National Parks and Forests. His critically acclaimed photography documents the often-threatened natural beauty of this country.

His 79 Years Project is a pictorial survey of environmental changes in our National
Parks, comparing modern photographs he took with those taken in the exact same locations 79 years earlier by Ansel Adams.

Ruggles currently serves as the official photographer of the US Army Historical Foundation.