Bulletin 09.2026

Letter from the Director

The BCMA director speaking to an audience
A Busy Start to the Fall Semester

Professor of Art History and Interim Director, Stephen Perkinson, discusses the many exhibitions and events that are kicking off the start of the new semester.

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Exhibition Highlights

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Now Open

A black and white photograph depicts medicine being dropped into a child's mouth
Healing in Apartheid South Africa: Michael Goldblatt's Photographs of the Alex Clinic
Now through February 07, 2027
This exhibition presents Michael Goldblatt's never-before-exhibited photographs of the Alex Health Clinic in Johannesburg's Alexandra Township during the 1980s. The photographs capture community care, activism, and education amid anti-apartheid turmoil, raising broader questions about health care access, inequality, aid, and photography as activism.

Opening Soon

A detail of a colorful ancient textile
What Did They Wear?: The Art of Personal Adornment in the Ancient Mediterranean
September 19, 2026 through August 29, 2027
This exhibition explores what was worn by people in the ancient Mediterranean and how various apparel–garments, clothing, footwear, jewelry, and accessories–were used by ancient cultures to represent ethnicity, signify social standing, identify deities, and equip an individual for special occasions and specific roles. Then, as now, appearance mattered!

Museum News

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A person installs technology in a museum exhibition

Staff Highlight: David Francis, Senior Interactive Developer

David Francis, senior interactive developer, has been helping to shape how people discover and engage with the Museum's collections. In this conversation, we discuss how technology, accessibility, and problem-solving fits in at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

Five student interns pose in front of an art museum on a college campus

Thank You to our 2026 Summer Interns!

As the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) prepares for an exciting academic year ahead, we celebrate the stellar work of our five 2026 summer interns: Camille Baratier ’28, Will Davis ’29, Laila Nickelson ’25, Claire Stone ’28, and Juan Carlos Villa-Diaz ’27.

A museum display case with celadon ceramics

Object(s) of the Month: Celadon-Glazed Bowls, Goryeo Dynasty (918–1392)

Claire Stone ’28 discusses celadon-glazed ceramics from the Goryeo Dynasty (918–1392) featured in the exhibition Medieval Art from the Wyvern Collection: Global Networks and Creative Connections.

Events & Programming

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A surreal painting of a silhouetted tree and red sun
Thursday, September 10, 2026
Tour and Reception for "Currents: Art Since 1900"
10:30am to 12:00pm
Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Celebrate the reinstallation of the Museum’s modern and contemporary gallery with a tour of Currents: Art Since 1900 led by curator Cassandra Mesick Braun. She will be joined by Robert Bernheim, Associate Professor of History at the University of Maine at Augusta, who will spotlight the special loan of Andrew Dasburg’s Portrait of Alfred (1925). At the conclusion of the tour, we invite you to join us for a bagel reception in the Museum’s Pavilion.

A black and white photograph of a woman administering a polio vaccine into a child's mouth
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Gallery Talk | "Healing in Apartheid South Africa: Michael Goldblatt's Photographs of the Alex Clinic"
12:00 to 1:00pm
Bowdoin College Museum of Art
Please join us for a tour of Healing in Apartheid South Africa: Michael Goldblatt's Photographs of the Alex Clinic, led by David Gordon, Roger Howell, Jr. Professor of History, and his students. The tour will begin in the Museum's Pavilion.

Reserve Your Tickets for the Declaration of Independence Tour!

Friday, October 30 through Saturday, October 31, 2026

This October, the BCMA will host the final stop of the Maine Historical Society's statewide tour of a Dunlop Broadside copy of the Declaration of Independence--one of only 26 surviving reproductions.


Declaration of Independence Tour Tickets
 

Pictured artwork: 

Michael Goldblatt, Alexandra Township, South Africa Polio Vaccination Campaign during Anti-Apartheid Rebellion (detail), 1986, silver gelatin print on paper, 20 x 26 in. Courtesy of David Gordon.

Egyptian (Coptic) textile fragment with birds and trees (detail), 400-600, tapestry, weaving.Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine. Gift of Edward Perry Warren, Esq., Honorary Degree, 1926, 1915.5

René Magritte, Le Banquet (detail), 1957, oil on canvas, 12 11/16 in. x 17 13/16 in. (32.23 cm x 45.24 cm). Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine. Bequest of William H. Alexander, in memory of his friend, Howard Hoyt Shiras, M.D., 2003.11.49