Reinstallation & Reinterpretation

Maggie Kurkoski is a member of the Smith College class of 2012 and the Brown Post-Baccalaureate Curatorial Fellow in the Cunningham Center.

Summers at the Smith College Museum of Art are usually tranquil, but this summer we've been busy with Phase I of one huge project: the Reinstallation and Reinterpretation of the permanent collection! It all started when our director and chief curator, Jessica Nicoll, decided that the Museum's walls needed a fresh coat of paint (after all, it had been over ten years since the opening of the new building). As all the art would need to come down from the walls anyway, she realized that it was a great chance to look at the collection in a new light.

For the past two years, we've been discussing and planning just how to do that. It's a two-part process: this summer, we focused on the second and third floor galleries, where we house works spanning ancient Egypt through eighteenth-century Europe. Next summer we'll renovate the lower level and first floor of the Museum.

two woman holding a framed print in an art gallery, preparing to hang it up. in front of them sit a blue ladder and a white cabinet

^{Aprile Gallant, Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, hangs a work with Stephanie Sullivan, Assistant Preparator}

^{Photography by Henriette Kets de Vries}

For those of us in the Cunningham Center, the Reinstallation is an opportunity to bring even more prints, drawings and photographs out to the public. On the second floor, in the works-on-paper gallery, we will have a show about the origins of the Museum's paper collection, with art from professors, alumnae, students, clubs, and everyone else who planted the seeds of the Cunningham Center.

woman stands in an empty art gallery, pointing to her right. man stands behind her with his arms crossed

^{Photography by Henriette Kets de Vries}

art gallery with framed prints sitting on the floor, propped up against the wall. woman stands holding one of the framed prints and pointing to it

^{Photography by Henriette Kets de Vries}

Displaying paper can be tricky: too much light damages photographs, prints and drawings relatively quickly, so these works cannot be in the galleries as long as a painting or a statue. Limiting their exposure to light is essential.

Still, we wanted to bring even more artworks on paper into the permanent galleries. Our solution: works-on-paper cabinets with drawers, so that visitors can open and see the art themselves.

woman stands in an art gallery looking at a white cabinet with one of its drawers pulled upon

^{A Works-On-Paper cabinet on the second floor}

The art in the cabinets will build on the ideas and themes of nearby art on the walls on the second and third floors. They will change once or twice a year, so even more paper-based objects can be seen by visitors.

The second and third floors will both be open to the public tomorrow, September 12th. We can't wait for you to see it yourself, and we look invite you to share your comments via the new Visitor Survey area on the second floor!

Read more about the Reinstallation project on the Grécourt Gate, news and events for the Smith College community: Gallery Redesign at Smith College Museum of Art Puts Collection in a 'New Light'.

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Reinstallation & Reinterpretation

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