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.

Welcome Lilly Watson, Our New Assistant Museum Educator
Hello everyone! My name is Lilly Watson (they/them) and I am the new Post Baccalaureate Assistant Museum Educator here at SCMA.
Persephone: Rebirth of Spring
Holly Trostle Brigham (Smith College class of ’88) explores her own identity through the solitary female figure, and during the 1990s focused on women through the lens of ancient mythology.
Smith Monuments (Wo)Men
These men and women volunteered often without any kind of army experience, to go out in the field to protect and restitute Nazi looted art. They were culled from all kinds of museums and art institutions and Smith College was not left behind.
Student Picks: Soulful Rebellion
Just like any other form of art, graffiti can invoke a great range of feelings.
Tell your ART STORY
This past semester, the Smith College community welcomed our new president, Kathleen McCartney, with open arms. The Museum celebrated her recent inauguration with ART STORIES, a special exhibition featuring art that has left a lasting impression on the widespread Smith community.
Objects in Limbo
A look behind the scenes can show how easily human error or simple forgetfulness can lead a piece of art into limbo, into an existence without cataloging, captioning, or even a proper home.
Brice Marden: The Grid and the Sea
Known as a “Romantic Minimalist,” his extremely reductive visual language of monochromes, lines, and grids may at first appear similar to that of his Minimalist contemporaries of the 1960s and ‘70s, but Marden never completely abandoned the accidental or idiosyncratic gesture characteristic of Abstract Expressionists.
Photography in Ottoman Istanbul
At the beginning of the 19th century, improved travel by train and by steamship offered Europeans greater access to Turkey and to Constantinople, then the capital of the Ottoman Empire.
Of Birds and Fourteen Year Olds
Nusra Latif Qureshi is a leading figure in the contemporary miniature scene, having studied the art at the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan.
Portrait Gallery of Distinguished American Citizens
The Cunningham Center owns a particularly interesting set of silhouettes, done by an artist named William Henry Brown.
Look at Me, Me, Me! The Art of Narcissism
Narcissism is not a new thing. Just read from Shakespeare or the classics and you come across many a picture perfect narcissist.
Student Picks: Interior, Exterior - Parisian Harmony vs. Discord, 1876-2009
"Interior, Exterior: Parisian harmony versus discord, 1876-2009" explores tensions in the portrayal of French culture.
The Grand Tour
Canaletto created contemporary land- and cityscapes, or vedute, which appealed to the travelers’ desire for reminders of their travels—the picture postcard of their day.