Behind the doors of the Diana Berger Art Gallery, you’ll find a time capsule of music photography and art. Portraits of well-known rappers and a vast mural of vinyl records adds life to these white walls.

It’s here where you can forget about the modern marvels of technology and dive backward into the trailblazing times of music.

“Music: 1950-2000 Artists, Records and the Industry” is the Diana Berger Art Gallery’s latest exhibition. The opening ceremony was conducted on Thursday, March 14 and open for all to join.

The array of participating artists includes all kinds of people from different backgrounds and trades: Stoughton Printing Co., Masaki Koike, Edward Colver, Claudia Lennear, Ewa Wojciak, Dr. Strange Records, Alice Bag, Melanie Nissen, Dawn Wirth, Robert Landau and Macondo Espacio Cultural.

Scott Council, filmmaker and photographer, also exhibited his portraits of rap’s most iconic artists. Council’s photo of rapper Eminem is included in the title wall of the exhibition, a first for the gallery.

Council is also the director of the documentary, “The Art of the Record: Bringing Music to the People.” The film was a collaborative effort between the gallery, the fine arts department, the photography program and the film and television program. This is the first time an artistic film was created with the purpose of being in the exhibition.

Album artwork, zine covers, records, photographs and music posters are amongst the pieces of artwork in the gallery. Visitors of a younger generation will find themselves fascinated with the musicians of the past while the older generation might find themselves nostalgic.

Walking through the gallery, one is taken back to a time when listening to music was a ritual. Outside the gallery’s walls, the tap of a finger on a screen can bring The Beatles back to life. However, director Kirk Pedersen wanted gallery goers to put that aside and immerse themselves in the exhibit and the objects in front of them.

The reason the exhibition highlights music and art specifically from 1950 to 2000 is because Pedersen and the collaborators intended on conveying the music industry, and its surrounding art, before social media. Social media platforms like TikTok allow artists to push their music out to people across the world. Before that, all musicians had were news publications, television, billboards and word-of-mouth.

“We’re going to capture a time before many of our students were even born,” Pederson said when discussing his vision for the exhibition.

Another reason for the chosen time range was to celebrate the pioneers of music, specifically minorities. Musicians like Alice Bag and Claudia Lennear can be accredited with breaking ground for the artists of today.

“The idea that Taylor Swift can be as popular as she is goes back to Joan Jett, or somebody else …” Pedersen said.

Another vision Pedersen and collaborators had was encapsulating all sorts of music into the show. This proved to be a difficult task, as music has endless genres. To try and capture as much of those genres as possible, it was decided that they would include LPs as an art installation. This is how the record wall came to be.

“That was important, that we cover the broadest range possible, knowing that there was no way to represent it all,” Pederson said.

From Bjork to Radiohead to De La Soul to Ritchie Valens, the vinyl wall is a lobby of music genres. Pedersen noted that the placement of the records was intentionally eclectic, as to connect the music genres.

“Let’s not divide, let’s not separate, let’s combine them all,” he added.

It’s easy to notice, when walking through the gallery, that almost every facet of the intersection between art and music is covered. From the people making the music to the people designing their albums. Observing the gallery in its entirety is a kin to watching the making of a record jacket.

“Without student workers and student involvement and volunteers, this place doesn’t operate,” Pedersen said.

Pedersen and Gallery Operations Manager Sasha Olivas, have launched what they call the visibility project, which aims to inform people of the gallery. The intention is to get students involved with arts and perhaps unlock potential or interests.

“I just want everybody to have an opportunity, to learn more about art, and to see if maybe they … want to start making photographs themselves, maybe they want to draw …” Pedersen said.

The “Music: 1950-2000 Artists, Records and the Industry” exhibition is a daze of music and the art interlinked with it. An utterly enjoyable show of talent and passion, it would be futile to try and describe. Perhaps Pedersen said it best, “Just come and see it. Don’t miss the opportunity to see something really cool.”

 The exhibition will remain open until Thursday, April 18. Gallery hours can be found on the Diana Berger Art Gallery website.