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Join us for the opening of "Heart of Hearts," our fall 2026 exhibition of archives and special collections materials at the William H. Hannon Library. Student curator Ava Lehrman will be in conversation with Karen Rapp, director of the Laband Art Gallery.

Ava Lehrman is a graduate student at Loyola Marymount University and is in her second year of the English Department's master's program in English literature. During the 2025-26 school year, Ava was the English department's graduate intern at the William H. Hannon Library, where she curated the Fall/Winter 2026 exhibit, Heart of Hearts. This academic year, she has another internship with the library, during which she will help guide the creation of the Spring/Summer 2027 exhibit, which will be curated by the students of Paul Harris's class, "A Course about Nothing".

Karen Rapp is a Los Angeles-based arts leader who specializes in the direction and curation of academic museums and galleries. Throughout her career she has been recognized for her promotion of the visual arts within higher education, championing interdisciplinary connections between campus and external communities through exhibitions and public programming. In her nearly 30-year trajectory, she has held positions on three distinct campuses. Currently, she is the director and curator of the Laband Art Gallery at Loyola Marymount University. Previously, she served as museum director of the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College. As part of her tenure there, she directed the ambitious expansion of the museum facility into a stand-alone, 40,000-square-foot space on the college’s campus in Monterey Park. Finally, from 1998 to 2005, she served in the successive roles of assistant director, curator, and director of the Sweeney Art Gallery at UC Riverside. 

About the Exhibition

Curated by English Department graduate student, Ava Lehrman, the exhibition "Heart of Hearts" invites visitors to reflect upon the human heart as a timeless icon that transcends familiar recognition as holiday greeting card imagery. Ava’s research reveals symbol, ceremony, science and coded messages that span cultures and centuries. 

Visitors will encounter a wide variety of historical objects, from ancient artifacts, early printed books and manuscripts to art works, postcards and ephemera, each providing examples of the “Heart as Sacred and Immaculate,” the “Heart as Soul,” the “Heart as the Seat of Emotions,” the “Heart as a Window into Human Nature” and the “Heart in Human Anatomy.” This exhibition asks us to consider the heart as an essential representative of human connection and values. 

About the William H. Hannon Library

The William H. Hannon Library fosters excellence in academic achievement through an array of distinctive services that enable learners to feed their curiosity, experience new worlds, develop their ideas, inform their decision-making, and inspire others. More information can be found at http://library.lmu.edu

For more information about this event, contact the Outreach and Engagement team at the William H. Hannon library via email at library.outreach@lmu.edu or call 310-338-5234.