Bulletin 11.2026
Letter from the Director
Stephen Perkinson, Professor of Art History and Interim Director, shares insights into the recent activities that have kept the Museum busy this fall semester. The BCMA recently co-hosted the annual gathering of the Association of Historians of American Art, which resulted in a record number of attendance for the organization. We are also excited for an upcoming student-curated exhibition which reflects on themes of diaspora and building community through art. There are a number of November programs to look forward to, including a talk entitled "The Sacred Multiplied: Fifteenth-Century Woodcut as Reproduction, Surrogate, and Simulation," hosted in collaboration with Bowdoin’s Hastings Initiative for AI and Humanity. Follow the link above to read more.
.
Exhibition Highlights
Closing Soon
Opening Soon
Museum News
Building Community and Joy Through Art
Edwin Kim ’27 is the student curator behind the upcoming exhibition hyperVISIBLE: Building Community in Diaspora through Contemporary Art, opening on November 19, 2026. We spoke with Edwin and supervising curator Cassandra Mesick Braun to learn how hyperVISIBLE came together.
Co-Hosting the Ninth Biannual Symposium of the Association of Historians of American Art
At the end of September, Bowdoin College and the Bowdoin College Museum of Art co-hosted the Ninth Biannual Symposium of the Association of Historians of American Art. The symposium was organized in collaboration with Colby College and the Colby College Museum of Art, and the Portland Museum of Art.
Events & Programming
Beam Classroom, Visual Arts Center
Join us for a lecture with David S. Areford, who will explore the intersection of early technology and creativity. This event is co-presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and the Hastings Initiative for AI and Humanity. David S. Areford is a specialist in late-medieval European devotional art, especially early printmaking. In recent years, he has extended his interests to the art of the twentieth century and beyond, with a special focus on the art of Sol LeWitt.
Bowdoin College Museum of Art
Professor Jim Higginbotham, Associate Professor of Classics on the Henry Johnson Professorship Fund and Associate Curator for the Ancient Collection and curator of the new exhibition, What Did They Wear?: The Art of Personal Adornment in the Ancient Mediterranean, will lead a tour and share insights into this unique display of the museum's collection.
Bowdoin College Museum of Art Shop
Join us for a special shopping experience in one-of-a-kind store, the BCMA gift shop! Museum Store Sunday will include a 20% discount, refreshments, and more. Showcasing a broad assortment of highly curated, unique, mission-related gifts, from books to jewelry to home accessories, stationery and children’s products, there is always something for everyone. Shop knowing you are supporting the mission and programs of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
Pictured artwork:
Ronny Quevedo, weaving portals (detail), 2024, metal leaf and pattern paper on carbon paper. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine. Museum Purchase, The Philip Conway Beam Endowment Fund, 2024.21
Gordon Parks, Ella Watson, American Gothic, Washington, D.C. (detail), 1942, gelatin silver print on paper. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine. Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund, 2025.32.1. Courtesy and copyright The Gordon Parks Foundation.
Shahzia Sikander, Ready to Leave, Series II (detail), 1997, vegetable color and watercolor on wasli paper. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine. Museum Purchase, Laura T. and John H. Halford, Jr. Art Acquisition Fund, 2021.70. © Shahzia Sikander
The Sacred Heart on a Cloth Held by an Angel (detail), colored woodcut, c. 1480-1490 (3 ¼ x 2 ½ in). National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.802
Artist Unidentified (Egyptian), Portrait of a Youth Wearing a Gilded Wreath (detail), ca. 100-199, wood (linden, tilia), wax-based paint (encaustic), gold leaf. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine. Museum Purchase, Adela Wood Smith Trust, 2015.38