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.

Charcoal drawing on cream paper of a woman with bobbed dark hair sitting cross-legged in a chair. She wears a button-up shirt, tie, knee-length skirt, and heeled boots with tiny buttons up the side.

Art as Archive: Curating Germany, 1918-1945

October 30, 2025

Rebecca McClung is a Ph.D. student in the history department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

BOW DOWN

There are fewer queens in the world than a century ago, but our fascination with royal women has continued.

woman in elaborate dress, carrying a fan, feathers in her hair. four other people stand behind her, attending to her. in the background, two figures talk amongst themselves.

Announcing the 2014-2015 Student Picks Winners!

The Student Picks Sweepstakes ended last Friday, and we have our six winners!

woman pulls a slip of paper out of a red bucket with surprised expression in her face

Reinstallation & Reinterpretation

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!

art gallery with framed prints propped on the floor against the wall, a large cabinet on the ground in the middle, and a blue letter extending up out of the frame of the image

YOUR art, YOUR vision

It's time again for the Student Picks sweepstakes!

close-up of woman lying on her back on a rust colored quilt on a beach, she has dark hair, holds her sunglasses on her face with both hands, and wears red jeans, black leotard and green shirt, next to her is a man with short dark hair, lying on his stomach, holding a cigarette in his proper left hand, he has on a blue T-shirt and white shorts, scattered around them are shoes, newspaper sections, magazines, a paper bag, a bunched up coat, and brown slacks

Kin

Seeing "Kin XXXII (Run Like the Wind)" in person is so different than seeing it as an image on a computer.

frontal head of a frowning African American woman with her hair in an up do over a circlet of real barbed wire encased in a black box

I Hope You Learned Your Lesson

Although many details are playful, there’s still an edge to this work. The phrase “I Hope You Learned Your Lesson” not only conjures up a boring, uncreative classroom, but also implies the aftermath of punishment.

Image of small student chalkboard in wooden frame on a white background with a message in straighthand and cursive writing: "I HOPE YOU LEARNED your lesson / 1974 W," with faint barely visible errors crossed out and erased behind

Standing Turk

Gérôme added fodder to his peers' Orientalist visions. To them, a sketch such as Standing Turk became an irrefutable rendering of what all Turkish men wore. The reality is much more complex.

standing man facing left in coat and turban with hands pressed together at his waist

Cartomania

Cartes-de-visite were a revolutionary form of photography – while earlier methods were expensive or clunky, cartes were small and mounted on card paper, which made them easy to handle.

tree and telephone pole sidewalk on left, curving street on right, large stone buildings behind trees, telephone poles and paths to sidewalk on opposite side of street

Clare Leighton: The blackest black to dead white

Leighton was drawn to wood-engraving, the process of printing from an engraved block of wood.

three men in tall boots standing shallow water with low hills and flying seagulls in background, left figure has a bucket attached to a rake over his shoulder, center figure is bend over pulling his rake with bucket of clams near him, third figure is bent pulling his rake with his bucket between his legs

Eric Avery

The AIDS crisis is a prime example of a historical force that raised crucial issues related to a key civil liberty: the maintenance of public health and access to health care. It is also an issue that mobilized a broad range of activist artists, including Eric Avery.

grinning skull with missing teeth and AIDS printed below on sheet printed in rose pattern

Low and Slow

As lowrider culture flourished in the 1960s and 1970s, it became more than a shared interest, and grew to encompass a sense of belonging to Mexican-American communities.

Sonic gas station with Christmas tree in background, sedan painted dull orange/gold with swirled designs, young man in jeans and short sleeve shirt squatting down near passenger door and smiling

Reinstall, Revive!

The Museum Reinstallation & Reinterpretation Project is in full swing!

empty art gallery, with wood floors, black cabinets, and two rectangular windows