Community and a Culture of Well Being

A growing body of research shows that art museums are more than cultural destinations—they are essential community resources that promote mental, emotional, and social well-being. Since the height of the pandemic, especially on college campuses, there is an increased need for the kind of connection and comfort that a museum can provide.

Our spaces are vital counterpoints to feelings of social isolation, proven to enhance mood, affect, and experience—so much so that psychiatrists and clinicians in countries around the world are prescribing museums as part of their treatment plans for patients.

Smith students had the opportunity to explore this affirming research in MUX 222hf Topics in Museums Studies: Art Museums as Institutions of Human Flourishing, an interterm course in January 2024 taught by SCMA’s Director and Chief Curator Jessica Nicoll, Educator for Academic Programs Charlene Shang Miller, and Lecturer in Psychology Michele Wick. This two-week intensive course explored how art museums contribute to human flourishing through education and an audience-centered practice.

The course attracted 15 students from all four class years and across academic disciplines—a number of whom had little to no prior experience with the museum. Combining psychology and museum studies, they engaged with readings, discussions, guest speakers, and applied experiences in the galleries to examine how museums reduce stress, foster social connection, and promote overall well-being. A field trip to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and a collaborative final project, designing a museum-based, flourishing initiative, provided opportunities to connect theory with practice.

The students reported many significant takeaways, notably a clear understanding that investing in one’s own wellness aligns with the pursuit of academic excellence and that, while SCMA is a valuable space for teaching and learning, it is also a valuable space to come and think, to decompress, or to hang out with a friend.

The museum has been developing our in-person programming to create those kinds of opportunities for students and the community. We also recognize that we are welcoming a generation of young people who have come of age in a time of unprecedented social and emotional challenges. SCMA has pursued and fortified collaborations with a range of campus organizations and affinity groups in order to evolve our work in service to students to best meet them where they are.

Our Museum Advisory Collective, begun in 2022, met regularly to share and gather insights that shape SCMA’s programs. This group of about 30 student volunteers has informed initiatives from the third-floor reinstallation to helping our Visitor Experience team think through ways to make the museum’s spaces more welcoming and comfortable for students. Among the outcomes of this work is Art After Hours, a popular new program designed for and by Smith students in collaboration with groups across campus. These theme-oriented evenings—Autumn Soirée, Museum Mixtape, Smithies in the Wild, and Scented Serenity, for example—bring people together through music, art making, and social connection.

Another wonderful and well-attended program, this one for the community at large, is Second Fridays, a partnership with Arts Night Out Northampton. The program began in 2005 as a way to welcome visitors free of charge one evening a month for art-making and exploration. The program was canceled in March 2020 with the onset of the pandemic and made its return in October 2023, when more than 400 people showed up with enthusiasm and gratitude, ready to roll up their sleeves to try their hand at printmaking. Now that the museum no longer charges admission fees, it’s especially clear that the program’s value lies in creating space, literally and symbolically, to bring people together.

In all of our work in and with the community, the museum is fortunate to have the support of STRIDE (Student Research In Departments) Scholars, research positions offered to first-year Smith students in their area of choice, and Student Museum Educators (SMEs), who lead young visitors—mostly preK–12 students from area schools—in close looking and thinking about art through guided conversation, multisensory engagement, writing, drawing, and other participatory activities in the galleries

Voices

MAEVE STANFORD ’27

Upon acceptance to Smith as a STRIDE scholar, I expected the research aspect of the scholarship to look like interminable hours of poring over sources, writing reports, and developing presentations. These components were certainly an element of my position as STRIDE scholar for Family Programs at SCMA, but the research comprised much more than individual study. My research under Gina Hall and the education department was an experiential practice—one that emphasized connection with family audiences above all.

One of my main roles was to assist with planning and facilitating SCMA’s regular family programming, Second Fridays and Playdates. During these events, I worked with guests to create art in a welcoming space, casually observing their reactions to their environment to collect feedback for future planning. I got to know the regulars and, along with my colleagues, was able to meet individual and group needs. Eventually, the casual observation turned more formal, and I developed a survey to gather audience demographic information. Collating this survey’s responses added a new layer of depth and understanding of the guests who attend Second Fridays and Playdates.

Beyond these programs, I also helped introduce activity-based bookmarks into the third-floor book nook and planned and shadowed a SME-led tour every now and again. I learned so much about how families interact in art museums, and this knowledge is precious to me as I pursue a career in the museum world. The connections I made are really, truly invaluable.
 

OLIVIA SARNO ’25

When I started as a Student Museum Educator (SME) in 2022, I quickly discovered that no museum tour goes perfectly to plan. Each group of visitors comes in with their own specific social dynamics, needs, and backgrounds, and being a strong facilitator means being able to keep up with their cues, rather than forcing them to behave one particular way. I am always trying to educate in defiance of the notion that museums are strictly formal or elite institutions. Instead, it is ultimately most important to me to cultivate a teaching practice rooted in freedom, agency, and empowerment. There is so much personal and collective agency to be discovered when we learn from and with one another. 

In that same vein, working together with fellow SMEs, along with the incredible mentorship and support of Gina Hall, Educator for School and Family Programs, made this job truly transformative. For my Museums Concentration capstone, I knew I wanted to focus on the intersection of language, museums, and access. I explored this by researching, writing, and producing Words With Friends, a podcast about multilingual programming as an institutional norm in museums across the United States. With this came the opportunity to explore an interdisciplinary area of study, hone skills in media production, and interview museum professionals who are making strides toward equitable linguistic accessibility today. It was so special to complete my studies in a creative research project where I was able to build on my firsthand experience working in SCMA’s education department.

SCMA’s rich partnership with the Campus School of Smith College is a compelling example of the museum as an extension of the classroom and part of an integrated curriculum. Programs and projects from the past two years include kindergarteners exploring symmetry as part of a unit on butterflies, first graders meeting with museum preparators to learn about the role of math and measurement in their work, a fourth-grade visit to the Registration Office to learn about museums’ responsibilities for objects by Indigenous makers, and a pop-up exhibition in the Cunningham Center of work that sixth-graders researched, selected, and curated with support from SCMA’s education team.

Through organized class visits, occasional drop-ins, and a variety of educational programs, the museum encourages learners of all ages to be curious with and about art, nurturing inclusive, accessible, and joyful experiences. Our Playdates program, designed for two- to five-year olds and their caregivers and created in partnership with Northampton Public Schools’ Early Childhood Center was introduced in March 2023. These sessions invite toddlers and preschoolers to explore art with age-appropriate experiences in the galleries, while the museum’s atrium is set up for free play with educational toys, puzzles, and artmaking supplies. Many families return to the program month after month to see old friends and make new ones.

VOICES

LEIGH FAGIN
Jean and David W. Wallace Foundation
Director of the Smith Office for the Arts

“The new Smith Office for the Arts works closely with Smith College Museum of Art to make the arts accessible and to ensure our work with artists is visible to the many communities we serve. The arts play a critical role in the lives of so many of our students, no matter their major. In addition to supporting the college’s thriving arts community both inside and outside of the classroom, we build on the legacy of 150 years of the arts as a key pillar of a Smith education and strive to make sure the arts are central to life at Smith for generations to come.”

Speaking of seeing old friends, in May 2025 SCMA partnered with Alumnae Relations to create a new opportunity for those returning to campus for class reunions. On the Thursday evening of both reunion weekends, the galleries hosted a Night at Your Museum event for alumnae to connect with classmates. Each evening drew an audience of around 300 people, representing the majority of alumnae who had arrived on campus. The feeling was festive as guests reconnected with friends in the galleries and “friends” on the walls. The museum buzzed with energy as people embraced the opportunity to engage in deep conversations with staff about the museum’s work and role on campus. The strong showing at Night at Your Museum catalyzed robust attendance of 2,600 museum visitors across the two weekends, a 41 percent increase over visitation in the previous reunion cycle and a 100 percent increase over 2023.

Increasing participation and partnership is a goal of the new Smith Office for the Arts (SOFA), focused on unifying arts planning and programming through interdepartmental collaboration in support of the creative work of students, staff, and faculty. As a hub of information about arts activities and events, SOFA serves as a central resource for elevating the roles that arts and artists play within our college campus. This commitment to increased access and visibility supports SCMA in fulfilling our mission: connecting people to art, ideas, and each other.

top to bottom, left to right: Three students pose during the November 2024 Art After Hours Senior Edition student event. Photo by Samm Smith; Reunion 2025 visitors have fun drawing each other in the Thinking Through Drawing exhibition. Photo by Derek Fowles Photography; Two visitors rest and relax on an artist-designed bench in the exhibition A Beacon to the World: Art from the Sylvia Smith Lewis ‘74 and Bryron E. Lewis Sr. Collection. Photo by Derek Fowles Photography; Students spend time in the lower level galleries with friends and art during the Art After Hours event in 2023. Photo by Derek Fowles Photography; A Smith student engages with a family at a Second Friday event. Photo by Derek Fowles Photography; Photo courtesy of Maeve Stanford ’27; Photo courtesy of Olivia Sarno ‘25; The Campus School of Smith College first-grade class working with the SCMA Collections Management team on the process of hanging art for their math and measurement unit. Photo by Charlene Shang Miller; A student views artwork in the May 10, 2024, pop-up exhibition by sixth graders from the Campus School of Smith College. Photo by Derek Fowles Photography; Two participants in Playdates, an artful adventure program, designed for 2–5 year olds and their caregivers in collaboration with Northampton Public Schools’ Early Childhood Center (NECC). Photo courtesy Ashley Miller; Photo of Leigh Fagin courtesy of Smith College; Smith alums laugh and talk in the third floor gallery during Reunion 2025. Photo by Derek Fowles Photography; Smith alums gather in the third floor gallery during Reunion 2025. Photo by Derek Fowles Photography