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.

Olivia wearing a denim jacket with a bright pink background and framed with flowers.

Summer Curatorial Research Intern: Olivia White ’20 (UMass MA ’25)

As a master’s student in the History of Art & Architecture Department at the University of

From Home: An Interview with Matt Donovan

A conversation with Matt Donovan about The Map of Every Lilac Leaf: Poets Respond to the Smith College Museum of Art, a collaboration between the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center and the Smith College Museum of Art which was released earlier this week as a part of SCMA100, the Museum’s centennial celebration. We talked about how this project came together, what’s next for the Poetry Center, and whether he’s been writing in quarantine.
A large slice of yellow melon sits next to a pile of peaches. Some of the black seeds have fallen away from the melon and there is foliage behind the fruit. The colors are somber.

A Challenge to Practice Optimism

I offered a challenge to my friends and family in various backgrounds and colleges outside art history to engaged with two works of art from the 5 College Museum collection which reflect similar anxieties or sentiments we feel during the COVID-19 shutdowns. asked them to identify something positive in each image. I left the prompt open-ended as I wanted to encourage optimism to take a variety of forms.
This detail of Anne Morrow Lindbergh shows her bust. Slightly hunched over with a sad expression on her face, she wears a purple sweater and red scarf and looks slightly downward.

The conservation process of Still Life with Fruit, Meat, Pipe, and Goblets

  

Still Life with Fruit, Meat, Pipe, and Goblets, a 17th-century still life painting by Dutch artist Maria van Oosterwyck has been selected to be included in the museum’s centennial exhibition SCMA Then\Now\Next. It has been recently conserved by Birgit Straehle at the Worcester Art Museum. These images taken during and after the treatment show how she brought this work back to life.

Still Life with Fruit, Meat, Pipe, and Goblets by Maria van Oosterwyck (1630–1693)

Covid Comments

Greetings, Ann Mayo here, Smith graduate from 1983.  I did not think I would ever have a job in the field in which I majored: Art History.   Happily I eventually found myself working at the Smith College Museum of Art.  Currently, I am Manager of Security and Guest Services there. 

Doug at the car parade thanking essential workers.

An Ode to a New York Summer

A New York City summer is intrinsically special, and is the season for which I yearn annually. Unbridled humidity permeates crowded subway cars as couples lounge hand-in-hand in the parks. Mister Softee trucks are ubiquitous and a plethora of languages fill the streets.

Roofs, Summer Night

The Making of SCMA’s Look and Listen

I’ve always been interested in intersecting art forms. I grew up training in classical ballet, flamenco, and other styles of dance in my hometown of Memphis, TN. At the same time, I took lessons in a variety of instruments and experimented in different genres of music. I entered Smith planning on becoming a dance major but soon realized it was time for me to pursue a new area in the arts. I took as many art history courses as humanly possible while continuing to dance on the side.

SCMA's look and listen compilation of images
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