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.
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.
Artists Through Each Other’s Eyes
You may recognize the work of certain artists, but would you recognize the artists themselves?
Collaboration with the Spatial Analysis Lab
The museum is teaming up with the Spatial Analysis Lab here at Smith to find the best ways to put images in both spatial and historical contexts.
Gladys Engel Lang: Scholar, Author, and Collector
We are saddened to report the passing of Gladys Engel Lang on March 23, 2016. We are grateful to Gladys and the Lang family for entrusting SCMA with the legacy of their work in the form of the prints, drafts, and research for the Etched in Memory project.
Student Picks: Mundane Particulars
Each of these ordinary moments becomes extraordinary precisely because they are divorced from their original purpose. They are now irreverently assigned a new role in this room before you, bearing witness to just another particularly ordinary moment.
Clare Leighton: A Connection to the Land
Rather than focusing on the picturesque qualities of the landscape, Leighton generally chose to portray the people who worked the land.
Literary "Piracy" in the Fifteenth Century
The Nuremberg Chronicle was enormously popular; however, it was also very expensive. In the neighboring town of Augsburg, a rival printmaker named Johann Schönsperger sought to reach a new market.
Uncanny Valley: Portraits of the Almost-Human
The more realistic an image is, the more viewers tend to identify with it—up to a certain point. Lifelike sculptures often have a peculiar, unsettling quality, occupying a perceptual and emotional space known as the “uncanny valley.”
Student Picks: Zeal and Discontent
Japanese prints have inspired artists for centuries yet are seldom given the attention they deserve.
To Know Ourselves: Exploring the Work of Black Artists in SCMA's Collection
This Saturday, Beryl Ford '17 will be giving a gallery talk at the museum titled "To Know Ourselves: Exploring the Work of Black Artists in SCMA's Collection".
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
During the Renaissance, scholars began to move away from basing academic theory on Christian theology, focusing instead on the rediscovery and analysis of classical texts.
Student Picks: Time and Space
This exhibition loosely deals with American adolescence, of coming into a history with uncertain predictions of the future.
Clarence Kennedy and the Photographical Construct
Well-regarded as a Renaissance History professor at Smith, Clarence Kennedy began to take photographs of pre-Modern European sculpture to aid his students in their research.