Library and Technology Services invites you to join us on Wednesday, March 26, 2025 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Fairchild-Martindale Library for Eighteen Months of Exploration, a conversation with Greg Skutches, artist and retired former Director of Lehigh’s Writing Across the Curriculum.

The free public talk coincides with a solo exhibition of Skutches’ artworks throughout study spaces in the Fairchild-Martindale Library (FML), 6th fl. south. The exhibit runs through March.

In his talk, Skutches will share his journey to his first art exhibit, reflecting on his lifelong passion for art, his career in education at Lehigh—including his role as co-founder of the TRAC Fellows Program—and how retirement opened the door to his 'encore career' as a painter. Skutches, who earned a Ph.D. in English composition and rhetoric from Lehigh in 2001, will discuss the intersections of his academic and artistic pursuits.

A Q&A session will follow. Light refreshments will be served. Register now.

About the exhibit

The Eighteen Months of Exploration exhibit features twenty-one original oil paintings on canvas, created in the 18 months since Greg’s retirement from Lehigh. With a diverse range of styles and subjects, the collection reflects his evolving artistic voice—shaped by quiet walks through a park during the pandemic, the movement of wildlife, and the expressive energy of people.

“For me, painting is an effort to explore, express, and celebrate my own idiosyncratic experience with beauty—whether in a scene from nature, a photograph, an image in my imagination, or an idea I encounter in the everyday world,” Skutches says. He finds the experience thrilling and asks himself, ‘What might that look like as a painting?’ Each work is my answer to that question.”

Art with impact

Paintings will be available for purchase, with portions of proceeds benefiting Lehigh’s Giving Day + March Mania in support of Library and Technology Services and the Basser Center for BRCA at Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center. View the catalog.

Library and Technology Services is pleased to showcase a diverse range of artistic installations that bring exciting works of art to the Lehigh community—featuring both contemporary and classical pieces, as well as works by students, professional artists, and emerging talents.

Please stop by FML to explore the exhibition and we hope to see you at the talk!

Library and Technology Services