Fostering Academic Partnerships Across the College

The Bowdoin College Museum of Art curatorial team has a deep commitment to fostering partnerships with colleagues across the College. To this end, curator Casey Braun, Mellon postdoctoral curatorial fellow Sean Kramer, and curatorial assistant and manager of student programs Sabrina Lin have been hard at work conceiving new initiatives while invigorating and sustaining existing programs. Below are a few highlights from their active spring semester.

During the recent spring break, Sabrina and Sean joined a group of fifteen students on the College’s inaugural Arts Trek, led by Amy Steigbigel in Bowdoin's Career Exploration and Development department (CXD). The group traveled to New York City for two intensive days meeting with Bowdoin alumni all working in different capacities in the arts. Sabrina and Sean helped facilitate discussions with colleagues at the International Center of Photography, Sotheby’s, the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Christie’s, and Hauser & Wirth gallery. This experience both flew by and felt like it lasted for weeks, with friendships forged quickly over many trips through the subway, dashing in and out of pizza by-the-slice spots, and over dinner in Chelsea. Across the many conversations over these forty-eight hours, a few themes recurred: the importance of maintaining friendships and connections fostered in college, making the most out of one’s classes at Bowdoin, and taking advantage of the many opportunities to work at the BCMA.

Starting in late March, Casey and Sean began piloting a new initiative “Coffee with the Curators,” a series of open office hours that occur bimonthly in Smith Union. For an hour and a half on Fridays, students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to drop by for coffee and snacks, and to share their questions, ideas, and other feedback face-to-face with curatorial staff. These meetings also allow Casey and Sean to share all the different ways to partner and get involved with the BCMA, including faculty and student-led exhibitions, class visits, internships, event hosting, and individual research.

Also in late March, Casey and Sean collaborated with three faculty members to share some of the many ways they have interacted with the Museum at a lunchtime faculty seminar. These included Margaret Boyle, associate professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and Director of Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies Program, Michael Kolster, professor of art and chair of the Visual Arts Division of the Department of Art, and Matthew Klingle, associate professor of history and environmental studies. These lunchtime gatherings in Moulton Union act as a way for scholars to share research with the wider academic community that includes. Casey and Sean found this a perfect setting in which to outline how the Museum contributes to the intellectual environment of the College and how they hope to deepen the Museum’s engagement with faculty and students. Casey and Sean hope this will be the first of many such discussions.

And finally, Sean joined professor of art history Pamela Fletcher at the Bowdoin Library Special Collections’ “Material Mycology” Open House, where the Museum exhibited William Henry Hunt’s watercolor still life Fungi (1858) for the afternoon. Visitors were invited to drop in on a Friday afternoon to hear from an multi-disciplinary group of mushroom enthusiasts, who conveyed a diverse range of expertise. Professor Fletcher shared her insights about Hunt’s oval-shaped, close-up view of ground flora. The BCMA’s contribution was made possible with the help of registrar, Laura Latman, preparator José Ribas '76, and assistant preparator Jo Hluska, and proved to be an excellent way to highlight the Museum’s collections and to partner with faculty and the Library.

Stay tuned for more updates, as Casey, Sabrina, and Sean keep exploring ways to go “beyond the walls” of the Museum, from pop-up events to forging deep and lasting relationships.  

 

Sean Kramer
Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow
Bowdoin College Museum of Art

 

 

Illustration:  Fungi, 1858–1859, watercolor and gouache by William Henry Hunt, British, 1790–1864.  Gift of Miss Susan Dwight Bliss. Bowdoin College Museum of Art.