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.

Olivia wearing a denim jacket with a bright pink background and framed with flowers.

Summer Curatorial Research Intern: Olivia White ’20 (UMass MA ’25)

As a master’s student in the History of Art & Architecture Department at the University of

Beyond the Museum: Art on Smith's Campus

Since the beginning of the 2020-21 academic year, SCMA has been collaborating with the Spatial Analysis Lab to create an interactive map of artworks around Smith’s campus. The map, titled "Beyond the Museum: Art on Smith’s Campus," is now available for public use!
sculpture of bird with wings raised sits in center of small pool of water surrounded by plants

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.
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