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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?"

Join bibliophile and author Nicholas Basbanes for a talk that explores the rich cultural context of paper and the book in celebration of the opening of the Library's fall 2017 exhibition, Bound and Determined: The Remarkable Physical History of the Book.

A reception on the second floor gallery of the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library immediately follows the lecture.

Free and open to the public.

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.

In conjunction with the opening of the Ivory Mirror, collector and philanthropist Sir Paul Ruddock, will talk about the pleasures of collecting, the delights of medieval ivories, and the importance of art to civilization. Facilitated by Stephen Perkinson, Peter M. Small Associate Professor of Art History. This event is free, but registration is required as seating is limited. Photo: Sir Paul Ruddock at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Photo by David Vintiner. Click here to register! 

The Bowdoin College Museum of Art participates in "Second Friday Brunswick!"€ Enjoy the exhibitions during extended hours, until 7:00 pm.

 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!


Photo: Visitors enjoy the Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Aaron Kitch, associate professor, English, and Stephen Perkinson, Peter M. Small associate professor, art history, and guest curator of The Ivory Mirror lead a conversation about Shakespeare 's Hamlet and the role of the memento mori in this famous drama. On the eve of the anniversary of September 11th, Professor Kitch will consider, among other topics, the range of cultural meanings of death that are historically specific, considering Shakespeare's era in relation to our own. 

Many films deal with death, the afterlife, and the macabre. The classic horror film, Suspiria, 1977, by Italian director Dario Argento, is the first of three films in the series, screened in conjunction with The Ivory Mirror. Followed by a discussion with Allison Cooper, assistant professor of romance languages and literatures and cinema studies, Romance Languages and Jill Smith, Osterweis associate arofessor of German, Bowdoin College.

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition The Ivory Mirror: The Art of Mortality in Renaissance Europe at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

Free and open to the public.

Photo: The poster for the 1977 film, Suspiria

This program explores the historic significance of ivory as an artistic medium and the implication of new regulations on the transport of ivory nationally and internationally as part of efforts to protect elephants and other endangered species.

Stephen J. Knerly Jr., Esq., Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP; Genevieve LeMoine, curator, Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum; and Stephen Perkinson, Peter M. Small associate professor of art history, offer multiple perspectives on this issue.

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.

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

Join the Library exhibition curators Kat Stefko and Marieke Van Der Steenhoven for a conversation about Bound and Determined: The Remarkable Physical History of the Book and the rare book collections at Bowdoin.

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.

 Dallas Denery, professor of history, offers insights into the historical, intellectual, and technical factors that contributed to the rise of the memento mori in the early sixteenth century.

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition The Ivory Mirror: The Art of Mortality in Renaissance Europe at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

Photo:  Finial of a Chaplet, France or southern Netherlands, ca. 1530 with mid-nineteenth-century insertion (ca. 1850-1860), elephant ivory. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.