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.

Circular dark bronze mirror with some green patina and eight wide and pointed petal shapes circling the edge. A small sitting frog protrudes from the center.

From Form to Symbol: An Aesthetic and Cultural Interpretation of a Tang Dynasty Mirror

November 7, 2025

Gengwei Guo (he/him) is a second-year M.A. student specializing in Chinese painting and calligraphy at UMass Amherst.

In Praise of Books

All books, to some degree, are works of visual art.

Smith Tours: Girl Power

Here at Smith College we are known for our commitment to the empowerment of women.

yellow background, Ingres nude at left with guerrilla head lying on pink cloth, text across top and right: Do women have to be naked to / get into the Met. Museum? / Less than 3% of the artists in the Modern / Art Sections are women, but 83% / of the nudes are female. / Statistics from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, 2004 / Guerrilla Girls CONSCIENCE OF THE ART WORLD / www.guerrillagirls.com

Remembering Jerry

Photographer, filmmaker, and Hampshire College Professor emeritus Jerome Liebling died on July 27 at the age of 87.

man in work clothes, gloves and hat standing facing proper right in huge pile of coal holding shovel in right hand

Notes from the Curator: Mapping the City

This year I became a curator for the first time.

horse drawn trolley; man wearing hat and coat with back to viewer in center; word "Harlem" on top of trolley; urban scene

Paper + People = Welcome!

Welcome to Paper + People, the blog of the Cunningham Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Smith College Museum of Art.

group of students stands looking at a display of prints propped up on a tabletop