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.

Red and white I voted for sticker for the people's pop-up at the smith college museum of art

Welcome to the People's Pop-Up!

Julia Giguere is the 2023-2025 Post-bacc Fellow in Marketing and Communications.

Spinning Diana

When art handlers at the SCMA moved Saint-Gaudens’s Diana of the Tower (1899), they discovered an unexpected quirk of the sculpture: it spins. But why does this American statue of a Roman goddess twirl on its base? Guest blogger Matt Blanchard examines this intriguing sculpture, and the reason why it moves.
triangular base with knob to turn ball on which proper left leg of nude female in midst of drawing arrow in bow rests, proper right left extended back; mythology

"Dante Day" is March 25

Danielle Carrabino is the Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Smith College Museum of Art.

Profile of man with his head wrapped in a red cloth and black branch of leaves

Shinoda Tōkō (1913–2021)

We are saddened to acknowledge the March 1 death of the pioneering artist Shinoda Tōkō, regarded by many as the most important woman artist in Japan.
abstract, diagonal swatches and lines forming a rough diamond shape

Where are all the Women Artists?

In honor of Women’s History month and International Women’s Day (March 8), this blog identifies four recent acquisitions of historic art by women: Lavinia Fontana, Elisabetta Sirani, Amile-Ursule Guillebaud, and Maria Ellenrieder. It also examines why SCMA, like most museums, lacks art by women.
3/4 portrait of a woman turned towad the right with her face toward the viewer. Her hair is down and she wears a high-necked lace-trimmed dress

The Year of the Ox

Yao Wu is SCMA’s Jane Chace Carroll Curator of Asian Art. As we enter the Lunar New Year of the Ox, she calls out anti-Asian racism that has escalated drastically in this pandemic.
Ivory carving of a cow and calf.

From Home: An Interview with Camille Bacon ’21

Camille Bacon ’21 speaks about her experience seeing ‘Black Refractions’ at SCMA last year, the upcoming event she is organizing to bring Kimberly Drew ’12, Thelma Golden ’87, Jenna Wortham, and Amanda Williams together virtually, and her honors thesis exploring the expectations of Black artists and Black art.
"Black Futures at Smith" text in purple on a dark, cosmic background. Purple likenesses of Kimberly Drew, Thelma Golden, Jenna Wortham, and Amanda Williams.
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