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.

Photo of an interior room corner with the wall to the right perforated with small holes and covered in dark blue and brown shadows.

Leaving a Legacy Through the Moody Purchase Program

Kaia Austin ‘26 is an Art History Major with a Museums Concentration. They have worked as an Academic Programs Assistant at the SCMA since 2022.

Ching Ho Cheng Joins the SCMA Collection

Yao Wu, Jane Chace Carroll Curator of Asian Art, introduces new acquisitions of Asian American artist Ching Ho Cheng that are currently featured in SCMA Then\Now\Next.

The Certainty of Blue IX from Torn Works Series and Untitled from Alchemical Series—are currently on view in the centennial exhibition, SCMA Then\Now\Next

Exploring Alfred Leslie: Notan Study for the Killing of Frank O’Hara, 1967

The gift of 142 drawings from the bequest of Carol O. Selle, class of 1954, has transformed SCMA's already outstanding drawing collection. Highlights from this momentous gift will be the subject of a series of posts featured on SCMA Insider. This post, by Aprile Gallant, senior curator of prints, drawings, and photographs, focuses on a drawing by Alfred Leslie.

black and white water color of horizon and moody sky, slightly abstract

Exploring the Baio Collection: Jill Greenberg's "Revelations"

Today’s post is by Mosa Molapo ‘22, a double major in Art History and African Studies, who is the
2021-2022 Kennedy Museum Research Fellow in Art History at SCMA.

As part of my work at SCMA this year I am researching and documenting the Baio collection. The collection, donated by Joe Baio and Anne Griffin (class of 1983), includes 100 photographs taken by majority women artists from across the world, (primarily the United States and Europe).

Photo of the unclothed torso of a short-haired, blond, crying toddler with blue background

Carol O. Selle’s Collecting notebooks: a conversation between Aprile Gallant and Meredith Diamond

Aprile Gallant, senior curator of prints, drawings, and photographs, speaks with Meredith Diamond ‘23, a student assistant in the Cunningham Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs about the documentary notebooks that accompanied a gift of 144 drawings from Carol O. Selle ‘54. 

Aprile Gallant (AG): I was really happy to see you so engaged with the content of Carol Selle’s notebooks. What drew you to them at first?

 

student sitting looking at binder

Amanda Williams' "An Imposing Number of Times"

In this post, Brooklyn Quallen '25 discusses her experience planting tulips for An Imposing Number of Times (2020-2022), a newly commissioned artwork by Amanda Williams. Brooklyn is a STRIDE scholar currently working with Emma Chubb, Charlotte Feng Ford ’83 Curator of Contemporary Art. 

Students and staff planting tulips in a line across Seelye Lawn

La Cuisinière, from Paysages et Intérieurs

Straddling the line between cultural appreciation and appropriation; Grace Ettinger a student assistant at the Cunningham Center at SCMA investigates a work by the French artist Vuillard.
Older woman seated in kitchen interior

Karl Hubbuch Joins the SCMA Collection

Henriette Kets de Vries Cunningham Center Manager and assistant curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs introduces works from the newly acquired Carol O. Selle drawing collection.
Drawing of young boy next to print version of similar drawing

What Does It Mean to be American?

Kayara Hardnett-Barnes 23' is currently working in the museum as a Student Museum Educator. She is studying Sociology and Film and Media Studies at Smith. Read about her experience creating and installing the interactive exhibit currently in the Talk Back Space.

The artwork, question, and community responses are displayed in the Talk Back Space.
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