Virtual Studio Visits with the Collectors Collaborative

Since 2006, the Collectors Collaborative has organized visits to museums, galleries, and artist studios in New York City and beyond.  Each year the membership also contributes funds to support the acquisition of a contemporary artwork for the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.  Often these works were encountered or inspired by these outings. 

Undeterred by the global health crisis, the Collaborative—under the leadership of co-chairs Isabel Taube ’92 and Ellen Grenley ’06—moved ahead with its program this spring.  Instead of arranging customary in-person studio visits, the members met virtually with two artists via Zoom. 

The first was Brooklyn-based photographer Farah Al-Qasimi.  Born in the United Arab Emirates, Farah is best known for her photographs of life in the Persian Gulf. In 2018 she moved to New York City after attending Yale University, where she earned a BA and an MFA. Earlier this year, “Back and Forth Disco,” her series of seventeen photographs, were installed on one hundred bus shelters throughout New York City as part of a project for the Public Art Fund. Al-Qasimi is also a classically trained pianist and writes music for her own films. Of note, she was included earlier this year in the Forbes list of “30 Under 30—Art & Style.”

A week later the Collaborative met with Shoshannah White, an interdisciplinary artist based in Portland, Maine. White has gained regional and national acclaim for her photographs and public installations that address climate change in the Arctic and elsewhere. She received her BFA from The Savannah College of Art and Design and has participated in artist residencies in the United States, the Canadian Maritimes and in Svalbard, Norway, within the Arctic Circle. 

Each artist gave a presentation of their recent work, provided a tour of their studio, and then answered questions from participants.  Though members missed meeting the artist and seeing artworks and each other in person, the Zoom program did facilitate a robust conversation and permitted members to see one another—at least virtually.

A short list of available works by these two artists—and a third artist Tom Burckhardt whose studio the Collaborative visited last fall—has recently been compiled and will be sent out to the Collaborative membership shortly.  We encourage all members and other friends of the BCMA to contribute to this initiative.  If you make a contribution (of any size), you are permitted to vote for the work you’d like to see added to the BCMA’s collection.  Results of this vote will be announced in September.  Many thanks to Isabel, Ellen, and everyone who is a part of this great support group.

 

Frank Goodyear, Co-Director
Bowdoin College Museum of Art