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Katharine J. Watson, Director Emerita, Bowdoin College Museum of Art discusses works from the 1811 bequest of James Bowdoin III.  Organized in conjunction with the exhibition Why Draw? 500 Years of Drawings and Watercolors at Bowdoin College.

Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.  Free and open to the public.

Photo:  Woman and Child, 1604-1606, black and red chalk, by Bernardino Poccetti, Italian, 1548-1612. Bequest of the Honorable James Bowdoin III. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine.

George Keyes, former chief curator of the Detroit Institute of Arts, guides participants in a close study of historic European prints and drawings.  Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Why Draw? 500 Years of Drawings and Watercolors at Bowdoin College.

Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Free and open to the public.

Honor Wilkinson, curatorial assistant, Bowdoin College Museum of Art leads a discussion within the exhibition The Ivory Mirror: The Art of Mortality in Renaissance Europe.

Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.  Free and open to the public.

Photo:  Master S (Alexander van Brugsal?), Netherlandish, Memento Mori, ca. 1520, engraving, with contemporary hand coloring. Gift of Linda and David Roth in memory of David P. Becker and Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund. Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

Reminders of mortality abound in the movies.  Following the screening of this film, a public conversation will address the relationship of contemporary popular culture and historical examples of the memento mori, such as those featured in the exhibition, The Ivory Mirror: the Art of Mortality in Renaissance Europe.

Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.  Free and open to the public.

Photo:  detail of movie poster for Ghostbusters II

Join Special Collections & Archives staff for the monthly page-turning of Audubon's beautiful and majestic Birds of America and take home a keepsake button.

Explore the double-elephant folio work and other related texts on Friday, August 4 at 12:30 p.m. on the third floor of Hawthorne-Longfellow Library in the Special Collections & Archives reading room.

Free and open to the public.

Presented by the Bowdoin College Library.

Enjoy "Family Saturday" with activities related to the exhibitions on view, led by Bowdoin College students.

Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art . Free and open to the public.

Photo:  Families enjoy activities within the Museum.

Anne Collins Goodyear, co-director of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, leads a discussion about the importance of these Renaissance works for modern and contemporary art.  Presented in conjunction with the exhibition The Ivory Mirror: The Art of Mortality in Renaissance Europe.

Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Free and open to the public.

Photo:  Memento Mori Pendant, probably from a rosary, France or Belgium, 1500, ivory, Philadelphia Museum of Art, purchased with the Walter E. Stait Fund, 2007

Bowdoin students offer a variety of activities for families, based on the many exhibitions on view, as part of "Second Friday Brunswick" from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.  Drop in and explore your local art museum.

Free and open to the public.

Second Friday Brunswick is organized by the Brunswick Downtown Association and is intended to give residents and visitors a unique opportunity to engage with the arts. Second Friday Brunswick offers a fun evening of artistic exploration featuring visual art, live music, dance and theatrical performances, and extended shopping hours all within walking distance of Maine Street.

See the Downtown Brunswick Association website for the full schedule of events in town!

Stephen Perkinson, Peter M. Small Associate Professor of Art History and guest curator of the exhibition, leads a discussion within the exhibition The Ivory Mirror: The Art of Mortality in Renaissance Europe.

Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.  Free and open to the public.

Photo:  Office of the Dead, Book of Hours, beginning of the 16th century, parchment by an unknhown artist, France.  The Huntington Library, San Marino, California,.

Please join us for an afternoon tea and conversation about the life and legacy of Harriet Beecher Stowe. The theme of the August Tea will be a series of stories, recreating the summer of 1882, when the lives of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Ward Beecher, Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, Austin Dickinson, and Martin Johnson Heade all intertwined in unusual ways.

Light refreshments will be served.

Thursday, August 17, 2017
1:00-2:30 PM                    
Harriet's Writing Room, Stowe House, 63 Federal Street               

Open to the public free of charge, but reservations
are required. RSVP at 207-725-3155. No reservations required for the Bowdoin community.

Dr. Craig Grimes, North Shore Medical Center, Salem, MA, and Stephen Perkinson, Peter M. Small Associate Professor of Art History and guest curator for the exhibition The Ivory Mirror, in conversation regarding the art and science of grappling with our mortality, historically and today.

Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in conjunction with the exhibition The Ivory Mirror: The Art of Mortality in Renaissance Europe.  Free and open to the public.


Photo:  Skull and Bones, ca. 1600 , engraving by Jan Pietersz. Saenredam, Dutch, ca. 1565-1607.  Philadelphia Museum of Art: The Muriel and Philip Berman Gift, acquired from the John S. Phillips bequest of 1876 to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, with funds contributed by Muriel and Philip Berman, gifts (by exchange) of Lisa Norris Elkins, Bryant W. Langston, Samuel S. White 3rd and Vera White, with additional funds contributed by John Howard McFadden, Jr., Thomas Skelton Harrison, and the Philip H. and A.S.W. Rosenbach Foundation, 1985

Elise Ansel, artist, discusses changing approaches to mark-making on paper and leads participants in hands-on activities.  Presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Why Draw? 500 Years of Drawing and Printmaking at Bowdoin College.

Due to limited space, free tickets are required.  Please telephone 207-725-3276 or e-mail cbaljon@bowdoin.edu for tickets.

Photo: Installation view of the exhibition, "Why Draw?"

Joachim Homann, curator at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, leads a discussion of experimental approaches to the figure, exemplified by European drawings from 1914 to 1945 in the exhibition Why Draw: 500 Years of Drawings and Watercolors at Bowdoin College.

Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.  Free and open to the public.

Photo:  Installation view of the exhibition "Why Draw?"

How did historic European artists choose their papers? Since when are drawings on paper considered art? When did we begin to speak of "works on paper"?  Ruth Fine, former curator of special projects in modern art, National Gallery of Art, and Marjorie Shelley, Sherman Fairchild Conservator in Charge, The Metropolitan provide answers.

Sponsored by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.  Free and open to the public.

Photo:  Gallery of the exhibition, Why Draw?  500 Years of Drawings and Watercolors.