While she has had a multi-faceted, successful career working with prints and drawings, Shelley Langdale, Class of 1985, originally entered Bowdoin not to study art history, but government and law. Many government and history majors, including Langdale, took some art history courses at the time, but it was her time working as a student employee at the George J. Mitchell Special Collections & Archives that inspired Langdale to change her field of study. By handling and caring for rare books, documents, and other historic objects, Langdale found her interest in learning about history through material culture. During her years as an upperclassman, Langdale worked at the Museum of Art under David P. Becker ’70, who at the time was creating a catalogue highlighting the Old Master drawings from the Museum’s collection. In addition to her academic experiences, Langdale was also drawn to prints and drawings through watching her father, an amateur graphic artist, print her family’s annual Christmas cards.

After graduating in 1985, Langdale found her first full-time position as a registrarial assistant through the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibitions Service, or SITES, in Washington, D.C. During her time working for SITES, Langdale was in contact with museums of all sorts, including aquariums, libraries, and a variety of other educational institutions. On the weekends, she worked greeting visitors at the National Gallery of Art. Langdale left SITES after two years to earn a master’s degree in the History of Art from Williams College and soon afterwards began working as a curatorial assistant at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, which houses the second largest collection of prints, drawings, and photographs in the country. After eight years, Langdale became the Assistant Curator of Prints at the Cleveland Museum of Art before finding what she calls her “Goldilocks” position as The Park Family Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2002.

In addition to curating exhibitions, Langdale has also had the opportunity to work with architects and conservators in designing the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s current storage system for its prints, drawings, and photographs. The most exciting project Langdale has been a part of so far has been Philagrafika, one of the first and largest non-commercial international-scale art exhibitions in the United States. Directed by José Roca, the exhibition was in the works for five years before its opening in 2010. The Philadelphia Museum of Art was one of eighty-eight institutions in Philadelphia involved in this city-wide exhibition, which ultimately hosted the works of three hundred artists. The goal of this exhibition was to explore “the graphic unconscious” – how printmaking has permeated contemporary art, both conceptually and literally. Overarching themes of the exhibition included aspects of printmaking such as materiality, reproduction, appropriation, and transfer. Philagrafika lasted from January to April of 2010 and attracted over 180,000 visitors.

While she has lived in several major cities since her graduation in 1985, Langdale keeps close ties to the Museum of Art and its staff. Langdale and Marjorie Cohn, one of her former colleagues in Boston, were integral to the organization of the Museum’s 2012–2013 exhibition Printmaking ABC: In Memoriam David P. Becker. Langdale has also been a part of the Museum’s Advisory Council and a member of its Collections Committee for the past four years. Langdale considers herself part of an increasing involvement by Bowdoin alumni in the arts in recent years, crediting Anne and Frank Goodyear for their efforts as Museum co-directors. Langdale also praised President Rose for his interest in cultivating cross-discipline involvement with the Museum, noting the importance of object resources in and outside of the classroom as a crucial way of understanding history and culture, as well as building visual acuity in an increasingly image-saturated world.

Langdale’s advice for graduating seniors and recent graduates is to not focus too narrowly when searching for a job and to take advantage of Bowdoin’s extensive alumni network. Langdale notes that she has learned valuable information from every internship and position she has held throughout her career and that, especially in the museum world, opportunities for making connections are everywhere. Flexibility, Langdale says, is key whether one is on an academic track or immediately entering the workforce. Exploring the arts field can be incredibly rewarding and, by dipping one’s toe in a variety of positions, one can more quickly and easily gain a wide array of skills and ultimately find one’s lifelong passion.

Interview by Noah Dubay, Class of 2019, Bowdoin College Student Assistant to the Curator