BCMA Re-opens with a Slate of New Exhibitions

On July 1st the Bowdoin College Museum of Art looks forward to reopening to the public, after a closure of more than fifteen months due to the pandemic. We are excited to welcome friends from near and far back to the Museum to see a variety of new exhibitions, including Transformations: New Acquisitions of Global Contemporary Art, which highlights contemporary art works acquired by the Museum in the last two years, and Laurel Nakadate | 365 Days: A Catalogue of Tears, which features the thirty-one photographs representing the month of August from Nakadate’s acclaimed series. Virtual summer programs with Laurel Nakadate and Katherine Bradford will provide opportunities for the public to learn more about the work on view.

We are also excited to share with the public exhibitions that they may have encountered through our online portal but have not yet seen in person: New Views of The Middle Ages: Highlights From The Wyvern Collection, which includes over fifty works from one of the world’s premiere private collections, many of which have not been publicly presented before, covering the period from the 6^th through the 16^th centuries, and The Presence of The Past: Art From Central And West Africa, which provides new ways to understand Central and West African art through its juxtaposition of historic art with objects created during the past century to explore ideas of power, gender, and cultural appropriation. Included in the show are works from the BCMA’s own holdings as well as from the Wyvern collection. The student-organized exhibition, Creeping Pavement: Depictions of an Urbanizing America, explores artists’ changing attitudes toward urban spaces from the late nineteenth to today.

While the Museum has been closed, the staff has taken the opportunity to think carefully about the history our collection and the stories we have—and have not—traditionally told about it. In this spirit, Re | Framing The Collection: New Considerations In European And American Art 1475–1875, curated by Elizabeth Humphrey ’14 and Laura Sprague, reexamines the Museum’s historic collections of American and European art. Framing these works through the lens of empire-building across Europe, North America, and their colonies, the exhibition addresses the legacies of the enslavement of individuals of African descent and of dislocation of indigenous individuals, as interconnected global networks took shape from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Please join us this summer for an online presentation by Dr. Micah Pawling, who will discuss “Wabanaki Homeland and Land Treaties in Eastern Maine, 1775–1833.”

Visitors to our website will notice a refreshed landing page featuring a new “Visit” button with responses to FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions).  This page provides  further information about what to expect when one arrives at the Museum. Although reservations will not be needed, we will require masks and social distancing to keep everyone safe. As always, the museum is free of charge, and we will be open to serve the public six days a week, Tuesday to Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm. All programming during the summer will remain virtual.

As we throw open our doors in the wake of a remarkable period in history, we realize that we have all been transformed, and we look forward to hearing your stories as we once again come back together. With personal change comes changes to our institutions as well. Over the course of the past year, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art has taken seriously its commitment to antiracism and has diligently pursued the commitments articulated in its Anti-Racism Action Plan. The Museum’s Anti-Racism Task Force is now in the final stages of completing an Anti-Racism Strategic Plan. As the Museum steps into its next chapter, we eagerly await the opportunity to reconnect with our audiences—both in the community and on campus. Above all, we want to do all we can to make certain that the BCMA is synonymous with a warm welcome to all.

 

Anne Collins Goodyear
Co-Director, Bowdoin College Museum of Art