A City in Flux: Reflecting on Venice

This installation features 24, including works on paper and paintings, that feature the city of Venice. Drawn mainly from the SCMA collection, it also features two works from the Mead Museum at Amherst College and the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. The works were selected by students in Monika Schmitter's art history class at UMass Amherst, "Curating Views of Venice" (spring 2025). The students also participated in writing the wall text and the installation plan.

Venice is said to be sinking today. But has it ever been stable? Constructed on wooden piles, or columns, Venice is located in the middle of a lagoon on the northwestern edge of the Adriatic Sea. Unstable landfill links the 118 small islands that make up the city. A network of canals offer transport routes for commercial and passenger boats, while pedestrians navigate the city through a system of bridges and walkways. Each day the ocean tide ebbs and flows, cleansing and eroding the city. People from all walks of life also continue to flow in and out of the city, taking away their own impressions. 

For centuries, both local and foreign artists have depicted the city’s unique setting, its labyrinthine byways, and its lavish monuments. They have also shown the unknown laborers that steer the gondolas of Venice, the quiet working-class neighborhoods, and the local practice of hanging laundry between buildings and across canals. This installation celebrates the enduring but ever-changing allure of Venice in art. Curated by undergraduate students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, it draws from the Five Colleges’ vast collections of historic and contemporary drawings, photographs, prints, and paintings. From the traditional vedute (“views,” or cityscapes) of the eighteenth century to the Biennale, an exhibition of international art held in the city every two years, Venice continues to be a city of art. These works demonstrate how the city stimulates both the desire to capture its enduring beauty and the wish to imagine new and other worlds.