YOUR art, YOUR vision
Maggie Kurkoski is a member of the Smith College class of 2012 and the Brown Post-Baccalaureate Curatorial Fellow in the Cunningham Center.
It's time again for the Student Picks sweepstakes! Every year, the Smith College Museum of Art invites six Smithies to curate their own individual exhibition, using actual art from the real Museum collection. There's no application - the winners are chosen by lottery, entirely by chance. All you need to do to enter is submit your name into a Student Picks ballot box.
Barbara Morgan. American, 1900–1992. Martha Graham, Letter to the World, 1940 negative; 1976 print. Gelatin silver print. Purchased with the gift of the National Endowment for the Arts. Photography by Petegorsky/Gipe. SC 1977.28.19.
Do I have to be an art history major? Nope! In fact, you don't need any experience with art at all -- the Museum staff will help you every step of the way.
What art can I use? We will help you chose art from the Museum's collection of over 18,000 works on paper. It's a really diverse group: from Salvador Dali-designed Playing Cards to Japanese-inspired Mary Cassatt prints to probing contemporary photographs such as Cass Bird's I Look Just Like My Mommy. There are endless possibilities and themes to explore.
Cass Bird. American, born 1974. I Look Just Like My Mommy, 2005. C-print. Purchased. Photograph by Petegorsky/Gipe. © 2011 Cass Bird. SC 2011.41.1.
What does a Student Picks show look like? Last year, the Museum hosted a slew of exciting, engaging, very personal Student Picks shows, all organized by Smith students. Amelia Yeoh Jia Min '17 put on Human Connections - Manifestations of the Mundane, her exhibition about the way artists depict the ordinary and the personal. You can read more about her show here, in Amelia's own words.
Visitors at "Human Connections," curated by Amelia Yeoh Jia Min '17
For her show Soulful Rebellion, Kenny Clarke '17 showcased graffiti art, and graffiti-inspired art, in the Museum collection. An artist herself, she created spray-painted labels with psychedelic colors for each piece of art. You can read more about her show here, in Kenny's own words.
Kenny Clarke '17 with her friends at "Soulful Rebellion"
Feeling inspired? You can enter the sweepstakes yourself! Find ballot boxes in all the libraries on campus (that's Neilson, Hillyer, Young AND Josten) as well as the Campus Center, lower level, and the Museum Lobby! Any Smith student can put her name in as many times as she wants - until the sweepstakes ends on September 15, that is. We'll keep our fingers crossed for you!
Ballot box in action