Smith College Museum of Art Hosts Outdoor Sculpture Show on Smith College Campus

The Smith College Museum of Art is pleased to announce the opening of a special temporary outdoor sculpture show, Bronze, Steel, and Stone: Selections from the Nasher Collection. The sculpture will be installed on the grounds of Smith College's lower campus from May 6 through October 29. The exhibition features five sculptures lent to the Museum of Art by Raymond D. Nasher in memory of his late wife, Patsy Rabinowitz Nasher (Smith College class of 1949).

Bronze, Steel, and Stone: Selections from the Nasher Collection includes works by both American and European sculptors. The small but impressive sampling of pieces from the Nashers' extensive collection includes works by Magdalena Abakanowicz, Richard Long, Beverly Pepper, Mark Di Suvero and William Tucker. Mr. Tucker lives and works in western Massachusetts. The selected pieces range in date from 1968 to 1991. After being shown on the Smith College campus, the sculptures will join other works from the Nasher Collection in a new sculpture garden in downtown Dallas that is scheduled to open spring/fall 2002.

The installation of Bronze, Steel, and Stone: Selections from the Nasher Collection arrives at the Smith College Museum of Art at an exciting time in the evolution of the museum. The museum building recently closed in preparation for the renovation and expansion of the entire Fine Arts Center complex, of which the museum is a part. The project will take approximately 2.5 years to complete. This outdoor exhibition ensures that Smith College students and the community have continued access to original and important works of art, both for study and personal enjoyment.

"The works acquired me. I didn't acquire the works," Patsy Nasher once said of her collecting activities with her husband. The Nashers first began to collect Pre-Columbian art, but soon shifted their focus to acquiring modern and contemporary art. In addition to collecting, Patsy Nasher was also an adviser to a number of arts organizations, including the Smith College Museum of Art, where she served as a member of the museum's Visiting Committee from 1984 until her death in 1988.

Raymond D. Nasher is founder and chairman of The Nasher Foundation and chairs The Nasher Company as well as Comerica Bank, Texas. In 1965, he developed the acclaimed NorthPark Center in Dallas, one of the first retail complexes in the country to include art, primarily large-scale sculpture, as an integral part of its design. Mr. Nasher serves on the boards of many cultural, civic, public policy and educational organizations in Dallas and nationally.

To contact the Smith College Museum of Art during renovation, please call 413-585-2760, or email: artmuseum@smith.edu or visit the museum's Web site at www.smith.edu/artmuseum.