In the 60 years that Antioch University has had a campus in New England, thousands of students and alumni have passed through its doors—and then back out into their communities, where many have dedicated themselves to service and community engagement. An exhibit at the Historical Society of Cheshire County, “Antioch University in the Monadnock Region: Celebrating 60 Years of Service,” is showcasing many of the stories to come out of six decades of community engagement.
For Rowland Russell, a longtime Department of Environmental Studies faculty member and an alum himself, the impact of Antioch alumni on the greater Keene community is well worth highlighting. That’s why he took a leadership role in organizing the exhibit. “We wanted to shine the light on people who are rolling up their sleeves and working for the community,” he says. “Those kinds of people at Antioch are everywhere. And, to be honest, it’s our relationships in the community that often bring us our students.”
The exhibit planning came out of a collaboration with Melinda Garland, Antioch’s Executive Director of Marketing and Digital Strategy. Garland and Russell compiled alumni stories, resulting in an exhibition that Russell describes as shining a light on alumni work in the community. The exhibit features large-scale timelines showing campus history and alumni endeavors over generations in Keene.
When entering the exhibit, patrons are greeted with a multitude of photographs showing new businesses, artist collectives, and community projects started by Antioch alumni over six decades. This showcases a wide diversity of ventures, but each is connected through a connection to Antioch. Spotlighted alumni come from every program and department the New England campus offers (and some discontinued degrees, too). Other highlights share the accomplishments and contributions of longstanding staff and faculty as well.
One story features the creation of the Monadnock Food Co-Op, which began incubating as a master’s project by two environmental studies students. (Read our Common Thread article about the founding of the Co-Op.) Another feature is the founding and continued leadership of MAPS, a community mental health center that’s currently led by Gina Pasquale, a 2007 graduate of the PsyD in Clinical Psychology who today also teaches as a faculty member in that program. (Listen to our Seed Field Podcast interview with Pasquale.) Many MAPS staff and trainees have come from Antioch over the years. Other stories highlight artist collectives and community gathering places in Keene. This includes the Nova Arts nonprofit, which a number of Antioch alumni across disciplines and programs have called home for their creative endeavors and community-based arts initiatives.
During the exhibit’s opening reception on Friday, February 21, Russell was struck by how patrons were interacting with the timeline and photos. “One of my alumni friends told me that she was watching people go around the room with their cell phones, taking pictures of some of the photos that were on the walls,” he says. “People would say they were texting them to their friends who were involved with those projects. The ties that people have with each other, at least for that evening, felt really renewed and strong and vital—not just in Antioch world but in the world at large.”
In true Antioch fashion, the event itself was a community collaboration between Antioch and Keene community members. Garland was sick on opening night and could not be in attendance, so instead her daughter arrived to document the evening in photos. Russell noted that the prep for the event itself, including creating the timeline and arranging it on the walls, was a collaborative effort between himself, Garland, and other Antioch alumni friends and community members. He had allocated over three days for this prep work, but it ended up being far ahead of schedule in just two hours with the help of the group.
Over the course of the opening, Russell received countless mentions of how inspired patrons were by the work that Antioch and its alumni had done. He continues, “For many of the alumni who were there, it was just a reminder that they have community, that there are people around them. So it was meaningful for them to be connected to each other, to look around the room and see each other, but also to look around the walls and see their work represented.”
The exhibit is ongoing through Friday, May 9, 2025, at the Historical Society of Cheshire County.
