"Romancing the Novel," an exhibition exploring romance novels and their cultural impact, will run January 6-March 7 at the Esther Prangley Rice Gallery at McDaniel College, Westminster, Md. The exhibition features original cover art (including paintings by James Griffin, Frank Kalan, and Gregg Gulbronson), manuscripts, publicity materials, genre history, and fan artwork and is organized in association with McDaniel's Nora Roberts American Romance Collection, Bowling Green State University's Browne Popular Culture Library, Yale University Art Gallery, and Harlequin Enterprises.
The exhibition was curated by McDaniel associate professor of communication and cinema Robert Lemieux, who commented: "With an emphasis on original cover art, the writing process, notable authors, publicity materials, fan interaction, and genre history, the exhibit provides a wide-ranging view of the publishing industry's most profitable genre--romance--and its influence over the past 80 years."
In conjunction with the exhibition, the Carroll County Public Library and McDaniel are collaborating on a "Romancing the Novel" speaker series during February that, so far, includes a February 27 presentation, "Love in Liberty: Black Historical Romances and the Joy of Freedom," organized by Nicole Jackson, a professor at Bowling Green State University and co-host of the "Black Romance Has a History" podcast.
McDaniel College professor of English emerita Pamela Regis, former director of McDaniel's Nora Roberts Center for American Romance, past president of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance, and author of A Natural History of the Romance Novel, served as a consultant for the exhibition.