From a cricket-filled Louis Kahn library to a hands-on installation at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Ransom explores how small creatures and big ideas can transform spaces of learning.
Strange Kin
Lamont Gallery, Phillips Exeter Academy | September 2 – November 22, 2025
In “Strange Kin,” Professor Britt Ransom is one of five artists exploring how insects can inspire and inhabit art. Her installation centers on a clear acrylic enclosure containing live crickets and a scale model of Phillips Exeter’s Class of 1945 Library, designed by Louis Kahn. The work riffs on a 2006 Andover–Exeter rivalry prank in which hundreds of crickets were released into the library. Surrounding the enclosure are CNC-machined sculptures based on Kahn’s architectural forms and 3D-printed crickets placed throughout the gallery — and even discreetly in the library itself. Each afternoon at 4 pm, a brief recording of cricket sounds plays in the library, connecting the exhibition back to its source.
Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh
Year In Art Opening Reception | September 24, 2025
As a 2025 Tough Art resident, Ransom collaborated with museum staff to create an interactive installation designed to endure energetic public interaction. The annual program invites artists to rethink how materials and audiences meet, and Ransom’s project continues her exploration of the relationships between humans, animals, and shared environments. Her piece debuts at the museum’s September 24 celebration alongside new installations by artists Saige Baxter and Chong Xu. Ransom’s participation follows a long history of School of Art connections to Tough Art, which has welcomed faculty, students, and alumni including Professors Isla Hansen and Jenna Boyles, Sarah Bowling (MFA ’23), Ian Ingram (MFA ’10), and Greg Witt (MFA ’09), now the museum’s Senior Exhibition Developer.