As the new semester begins at Franklin & Marshall College, the Phillips Museum of Art will be overflowing with exhibitions.

Four shows are opening in the newly renovated museum, located within the Steinman College Center.

The renovations have moved galleries around, expanded the Nissley Permanent Collection Gallery and offered more flexibility, with movable walls, the ability to feature natural light, and the removal of traditional ceilings.

"It gives us more space and more flexibility," says Claire Giblin, curator of exhibitions for the Phillips Museum of Art.

The renovations are part of a new initiative at the college.

"We are really engaging the faculty to produce exhibitions," Giblin says. "Their own or their classes."

That initiative is evident on the four shows opening Wednesday and running through early March.

In the Dana Gallery, the 2012 Art Faculty Biennial Exhibition features the work created by faculty of the art and art history department as well as retired art faculty.

An artists' reception will be held Jan. 26 at 4:45 p.m.

A wide variety of media is included in the show, as well as styles of art. But then, the faculty is pretty diverse.

For example, department head Virginia A. Maksymowicz creates mixed-media installations that are often about political and social issues.

James Peterson has an interest in computer art and photography. Jun-Cheng Lui is interested in bringing together traditional Chinese art with western realism. Carol Hickey explores architecture.

And that doesn't even include the retired faculty invited to be part of the show, including sculptor Linda Cunningham and Folke Tyko Kihlstedt, who studies the interaction of art, science and technology.

One of the newest members of the faculty, James Holmgren, is not only participating in the faculty show, but has a solo exhibit in the Rothman Gallery.

"His work is about place and identity," Giblin says. "A photo can bring all kinds of memory. His work is very haunting."

The pieces are large-format mixed-media works.

A reception and gallery talk by Holmgren will be held Friday, Feb. 3 at 4:45 p.m.

Art history professor Kostis Kourelis is curating "Colors of Greece: the Art and Archaeology of Georg von Peschke," in the Curriculum Gallery.

This is the first museum exhibition of Peschke's work. A member of the European modern art movement, the Austrian painter adopted Greece as his home in the 1920s.

He was probably better known for his work as chief illustrator, surveyor and architect for the American excavations in Olynthus, Corinth and Isthmia.

"His paintings were pushed aside," Giblin says. "Kostis fell in love with this art. This is part of his research."

The exhibition features beautiful examples of his landscapes and his portraits in particular. Peschke is able to capture the essence of the country in a way only those from outside of it can.

A public reception with Kourelis in attendance will be held Feb. 9 at 4:45 p.m.

In the Nissley Permanent Collection Gallery, Napoleon Bonaparte takes center stage.

"Napoleona" is the result of research done by students in French/Italian professor Scott Lerner's class.

A variety of maps, papers, painting reproductions and furniture helps to bring the era of the infamous emperor alive.

A reception and gallery talk with Lerner and his students will be held Jan. 31 at 4:45 p.m.

All exhibits are free and open to the public.

Exhibit openings

"2012 Art Faculty Biennial

Exhibition" in the Dana Gallery

"Colors of Greece: the Art and

Archaeology of Georg von Peschke"

in the Curriculum Gallery

"Works of John Holmgren"

in the Rothman Gallery

"Napoleona" in the Nissley

Permanent Collection Gallery

Phillips Museum of Art

Tues.-Fri. 11:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

(until 6:30 p.m. on First Fridays);

Sat. and Sun. 12:30-4:30 p.m. Free

Exhibits open Wednesday

Phillips Museum of Art

Steinman College Center

F&M College. 291-3879
www.fandm.edu/phillipsmuseum