SCMAinsider

SCMAinsider offers dynamic perspectives on the diverse collections and visions that shape the
Smith College Museum of Art.

We welcome contributions from all members of our community and seek to cultivate a range of
voices and experiences. If you want to contribute to the blog, please contact us at scmacuratorial@smith.edu.

Mindful Museum Meanderings

As a community health organizer, I worked with SCMA over the J-term to develop and refine mindfulness projects in the museum space.

Outside the Box: Frames to Focus on During Your Next SCMA Visit

Kay Horak ‘24 is a self-designed Art Conservation Major with a Mathematical Sciences Minor and Museums Concentration. She is the 2023-2024 Kennedy Museum Research Fellow in Art History at SCMA, working with Danielle Carrabino, Curator of Painting and Sculpture. Here, she shares some of what she’s learned about frames in the museum’s collection through her fellowship.

Colorful painting of a man dressed in black sitting in a chair

Yong Soon Min (1953-2024)

Aprile Gallant is Mary Walcott Keyes 1931 Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs and Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs. 

SCMA and the larger contemporary art world lost a leading light this month with the death of Korean American artist Yong Soon Min.

Yong Soon Min installing Movement at the Smith College Museum of Art

Silken Threads: A Journey Through Local History with a Student Museum Educator

As part of a new curriculum focused on local histories of silk in Northampton and Florence, fifth graders from the Campus School of Smith College took field trips to the Smith College Museum of Art (SCMA) and Historic Northampton to see examples of silk in art and historical garments. In collaboration with Campus School teachers Paul Matylas and Lisa Echevarria,  SCMA's Educator for School and Family Programs Gina Hall, and I developed an original program that utilized the resources of multiple collections to engage students with local history.
Elizabeth Sacktor working with Campus School Fifth Graders, to look at Adoration of Shepherds by Erasmus Quinellius II

The Perceptions and Perspectives of Artist David Andrews

Kamala GhaneaBassiri, the Bodnar Curatorial Fellow at the Smith College Museum of Art (SCMA).

If you’ve visited the Smith College Museum of Art (SCMA) before, there's a decent chance you’ve noticed David Andrews at the front desk, hunched over a piece of paper, pulling out words from a tin box or shading in amorphous forms. David started working at SCMA as a Gallery Assistant (GA) over twenty years ago, shortly after moving to Western Massachusetts from Chicago. 

Drawing of bark with words surrounding the drawing

Human Flourishing in Art Museums

Josie Wong ‘26 is a sophomore Art History major and Museum Studies concentrator. Here, she shares her experience in the Smith College Museum of Art (SCMA)’s interterm course MUX222: Art Museums as Institutions of Human Flourishing.

Students engaging in different experiences with Frankenthaler’s Blue Atmosphere II on the first class

Welcome Marketing and Communications Fellow Julia Giguere!

Countless times in my life I have said, “I love going to museums!” When I travel, I always try to find a new museum to see. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts or the Sandwich Glass Museum on Cape Cod. Big or small, art or history, I just love seeing culture displayed.

Julia Giguere in Washington, D.C.

Welcome Museum Education Fellow Chaia Leibowitz!

Hi, I’m Chaia (she/they) and I will be working as the Sacerdote Post-Baccalaureate Fellow in Museum Education. I am thrilled to be joining Kamala GhaneaBassiri (they/them), the new curatorial fellow, and Julia Giguere (she/her), the new marketing and communications fellow, at SCMA! I love Western Mass and am a University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) Alumni (‘22). At UMass, I double majored in the Individualized Concentration in Film Studies focusing on Experimental Video Production and in Communications concentrating on the impacts of mass media. 

Chaia Leibowitz snowshoeing and exploring the haunted sites of Preston-Potter Hollow, NY

Welcome Curatorial Fellow Kamala GhaneaBassiri!

Hi! I’m Kamala GhaneaBassiri (they/them), the new two-year Bodnar post-baccalaureate curatorial fellow at SCMA. I am joined by museum education fellow Chaia Leibowitz (she/they) and marketing and communications fellow Julia Giguere (she/her) who will introduce themselves in separate blog posts in the next couple of weeks.

Kamala GhaneaBassiri at Warren G. Magnuson Park in Seattle, Washington

Do the Clothes Make the Man?

 

Z Stevens ‘25j is an English Major and Museum Concentrator. They are a Student Museum Educator working with K-12 school groups.

man in civilian medieval dress holding a falcon on his bent arm, hands and falcon believed to be modern additions; man; bird; costume/uniform
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