Works by Ada Comstock Alumnae on Display

Works by 16 artists, all of whom graduated from Smith College as Ada Comstock Scholars, will be on display in the Smith Alumnae House gallery from February 5 through March 26.

The Ada Comstock Scholars Program, founded in 1975, is designed for women of nontraditional college age who wish to complete bachelor of arts degrees. Almost 1,300 women have graduated from Smith in this program after fulfilling the same requirements as traditional-aged students.

The exhibition, the first of its kind, will open with a reception on Friday, February 5, from 5 to 8 p.m. in the Alumnae House gallery. The juried show, organized by a group of ACS alumnae will showcase 17 works of art.

The judges for the exhibition, which is the brainchild of Olwen O'Herlihy Dowling AC '95, were Susan Heideman, professor of art at Smith, Janice Carlson Oresman '55, Smith trustee and art adviser to corporate and private collectors, and Charles Parkhurst, art historian and past interim director of the Smith College Museum of Art.

Ada Comstock Scholars whose art will be represented in the exhibition are Suza 2.sing.yan, Mary E. Arel, Barbara Collins, Gail Connor, Eliza Cooney, Mireille Damicone, Joan G. Kenna, Eleanor Magid, Mary Ann Phoenix, Sherry Poirrier, Kathleen Powell, Rosemary von Schlegell, Lucy Taylor, Mercedes Taylor, Linda Wallack, Katherine Whittaker, and Claudia Zimmerman.

"Many Ada Comstock Scholars are already accomplished artists when they enter Smith," says Eleanor Rothman, director of Ada Comstock initiatives, who worked with Dowling and the exhibition committee while she was still director of the ACS program, "Some pursue advanced study in the media in which they have worked, some move into new media and some major in departments other than art while continuing to do their art as they always have. The artists participating in this show represent all of those variations."

Gallery hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. There is no admission charge for the exhibition.