About
SCMA is recognized as a leading academic museum, contributing meaningfully to Smith College’s mission to educate women of promise for lives of distinction and purpose. We welcome about 35,000 visitors a year, including Five College students, staff and faculty, and visitors from the region and around the world. The museum’s collection now comprises more than 29,000 objects, representing the diversity of art and material culture across periods and geographies.
Our mission
The Smith College Museum of Art cultivates inquiry and reflection by connecting people to art, ideas and each other. We do this by:
- Engaging people with firsthand experiences of art, artists and museum practice
- Collecting, researching, presenting and preserving an expansive collection of art in the service of learning, teaching and critical dialogue
- Fostering an environment that welcomes diverse perspectives and inspires imagination
Our commitment to diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion
We, SCMA’s staff, believe that diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion are vital to our mission and must inform all of our activities and decisions.
As part of Smith College, “We recognize that white supremacist legacies, historic and systemic, have affected and continue to affect not only Black lives but also those of many other races and identities.”—Smith O.E.I.
Art museums, including ours, have contributed to racist structures through choices of what artworks to collect and how, and whose stories about art and history are told and by whom. We are working to create a genuinely inclusive and anti-racist museum that reflects the diversity of the campus community that is at the heart of our mission.
We know this will take ongoing work. Steps we are taking now:
- Centering diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion in the museum’s collecting
- Ongoing anti-racism education for staff and board
- Active staff and board anti-racism working groups
- Developed core values for SCMA (below)
- Undertaking an audit of work to date to inform an equity plan
- Implementing anti-bias practices for all hiring
- Restructuring security and visitor services to strengthen safety for people and art and shift to a visitor-centered approach.
- Reviewed and updated security and visitor services hourly salaries to support equity and living wages
- Diversifying the vendors represented in the SCMA Shop
- Expanding the cultures and people represented through art on display
These actions contribute to the Smith College Toward Racial Justice plan and build on SCMA’s 2017–2022 Strategic Plan.
This work will evolve as we learn and as the needs of our communities change. We welcome your questions and feedback. Email our staff DEAI working group at artmuseum@smith.edu (current members are David Andrews, Martha Ebner, Lily Foster, Aprile Gallant, Louise Krieger, Ann Mayo, Charlene Shang Miller and Justin Thomas).
Our core values
The following are values we strive to uphold in our internal work culture and in interactions with our visitors, partners and collaborators.
- Connect art and people
- We embrace the intellectual and creative potential of art and artists to open dialogue and inspire curiosity.
- We embrace the intellectual and creative potential of art and artists to open dialogue and inspire curiosity.
- Question and change our practices
- We acknowledge that historically art museums, including ours, have centered on the lives and creations of a few to the exclusion of the many and have been built through colonialism and exploitation. We engage in active self-reflection and change to develop practices that resist racism, white supremacy, and inequality within our museum and the broader field.
- Share authority
- We prioritize opportunities to elevate and amplify diverse perspectives and voices—especially those of young people and students of all ages.
- We prioritize opportunities to elevate and amplify diverse perspectives and voices—especially those of young people and students of all ages.
- Listen actively
- We endeavor to listen actively with a commitment to continued transformation.
- We endeavor to listen actively with a commitment to continued transformation.
- Learn and adapt
- We support a culture of ongoing and proactive learning for staff and seek to explore critical histories about art in dialogue with our audiences.
- We support a culture of ongoing and proactive learning for staff and seek to explore critical histories about art in dialogue with our audiences.
- Be compassionate
- We strive to practice compassion in our interactions with fellow staff, museum visitors and other collaborators.
- We strive to practice compassion in our interactions with fellow staff, museum visitors and other collaborators.
Our history
Museum staff
Explore a complete list of museum staff
Annual Report & Strategic Plan
Explore SCHEMA, the museum's annual report, and learn about the SCMA Strategic Plan 2017–2022.
News & press
For news releases and press/media queries
Accessing the Collection
Accessing Works in Storage
If you are interested in seeing a painting or sculpture, please contact Robyn Haynie, Collections Manager/Registrar to make an appointment.
If you are interested in accessing prints, drawings or photographs in storage, please contact the Cunningham Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings and Photographs.
Accessing Object Files
Information about many of the works in our collection may be found in curatorial object files. These files contain both archival material as well as secondary literature. We welcome everyone to consult these files, regardless of background, age, affiliation, or the nature of your research.
To schedule a visit, please:
- Fill out this Google form: SCMA Object Files Appointment Request (For object files related to prints, drawings and photographs, please visit the Cunningham Study Center page.) This form will ask you to provide a list that includes accession number, artist’s name (if known), title, and the topic/purpose of your research. Object information is accessible through the Five College Museum Database. We will pull up to fifteen files per visit.
- Note that the galleries are closed to the public on Monday, but appointments to consult files are possible.
- Contact us for an appointment at least three business days ahead of time. Please note that we are not able to accommodate drop-in appointments.
Reproductions and Permission for Use of Images
For Education, Personal, Fair Use Purposes
The Smith College Museum of Art posts site content to provide an educational resource to the public. All text, images and technology remain the property of the museum, or of third parties, and are used by permission and in all cases protected by copyright.
Images and descriptive content may be downloaded freely from the Five College Collections Database for research, educational and personal purposes. The Five College Consortium encourages noncommercial use of this content but requests that the institution owning the work be cited and notified.
Examples of permitted uses include but are not limited to: academic papers, research not meant for publication, classroom use by educators, noncommercial presentations and individual enjoyment. Please note that posting on a website is considered publication and requires permission.
Academic users may also find higher quality images of the SCMA collection on Artstor.
Copyright
Copyright to all SCMA site content is held by the Smith College Museum of Art when not retained by artists or their representatives under current copyright laws. Unauthorized use of content from this site is strictly prohibited. Commercial use of any material requires explicit permission. Please apply to rhaynie@smith.edu with details of the proposed use. Personal or educational use under Fair Use guidelines may be permitted for content in the public domain. Use of material of living artists for any purpose requires permission from the copyright holder.
Request for Reproductions
For posters, postcards and catalogs, please visit the Museum Shop. If you'd like to obtain a high-resolution digital file of a work of art in SCMA’s collection, please contact Robyn Haynie, Collections Manager/Registrar. Fees vary with intended use.
When you contact the museum to request an image, please supply the following information:
- Artist’s name
- Title of the artwork (or accession number)
- Desired format (not all images are available in all formats)
- Intended use
- For publications also include: publisher, date of publication, title, author, size of print run, distribution area, language and length of term requested
If you have any questions, please contact our Collection Manager/Registrar:
rhaynie@smith.edu
Robyn Haynie
Smith College Museum of Art
Northampton, MA 01063
413-585-2765 tel
413-585-2782 fax