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With a new floor of day-lit
galleries (left, top and bottom), the museum has more
room to exhibit its collection, which comprises more
than 25,000 works. Photos by Jim Gipe.
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The Brown
Fine Arts Center: The Wait is Over
Smith students have wasted no time in making
their way into the dazzling new Brown Fine Arts Center. After
the completion of a two-year, $35 million renovation and expansion of
the former fine
arts complex, circa 1972, two components of the new center -- the
Hillyer Art Library and the Art Department -- reopened last fall.
The third and final piece, the art museum, made its public
debut in a ceremony on April 27.
Jen Giasone '03, a museum intern
and an art history major from Michigan, was not the only
Smith student who was happy when the transformed art department
and library welcomed students back in September. But she was perhaps one of the
most enthusiastic. “It was so exciting when I got my class schedule and
it read ‘Hillyer Hall!’” she says.
“There is an incredible enthusiasm
on campus about the complex being back,” continues
Giasone. “Students are thrilled.”
By the time the museum reopened,
Giasone, who was also head of the student liaison group, had already been
working for months to organize a late-night
May 1 “Reopening
Bash” just for Smith students. She enlisted the help of many students
and also brought on board the members of an architecture class who designed
a festive
grand entrance that was installed in the museum the night of the party.
Meanwhile, a year earlier, another student
group had begun working with Nancy Rich, curator of education,
to develop a random-access digital audio tour of the museum’s permanent
collection. This was not an easy task, as Smith’s collection includes
some 25,000 works of art. While the museum was closed, new purchases
added
another 600 works of art to the collection.
Now the self-operating
tour, a new addition to the museum visitor services, allows
museum-goers to listen to recorded narratives
while viewing selected works from the permanent collection.
The audio tour, highlighting 56 works for adults and 25
for families, is funded
in part by a $37,000 grant from the National Endowment for
the Arts.
“During the three years the museum was closed, we were preparing written
materials and collecting interviews from faculty and various contemporary artists
for this audio tour,” says Nancy Rich, curator of education. The interviews
were conducted with the assistance of California-based media firm Antenna Audio.
Four Smith students were invited to Antenna Audio’s production studios
in New York, where they sat in on interviews with several artists. During the
same trip, they visited with audio tour staff at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
and discussed such issues as equipment and marketing.
Learn
more about the Brown Fine Arts Center >
Learn
more about the new features of
the Museum of Art >
Visit
the Web site of the Museum of Art >
Visit
the Web site of the Department of Art >
The museum will also offer
new family programs, developed by Ann Musser, associate curator of education.
The first, “Got Silk?” Family Day in March,
featured activities for children and their families based on the exhibition “Silk
in New England Society, 1730-1930.” The more than 30 student volunteers,
and others from the Smith community, made the day a huge success, Musser believes. “We’d
like to plan a family-day event at least once a semester.” After the
first family day, she was surprised to hear from many students who offered
new ideas
for future family days and “offered as well their help and willingness
to get together on a weekly basis and plan a whole slate of new activities
for the fall.”
As morning sun streams through
the windows, metal sunscreens filter the natural
light coming into one of the center’s new meeting
rooms (top). The sunlight is also filtered
through the walls of windows that are predominant
features in the art studios and classrooms. Photos
Jeff Goldberg/ESTO.
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One long-standing tradition with students
who wish to be involved in museum work -- the
20-year-old docent program -- is certain to be increasingly popular. Some
40 students are already on board as docents, and their training prepares them
to give gallery tours to the public, visitors and school groups alike. The docent
program is a great way to get a foot in the door of the art world, Rich says. “It’s
a good training ground for students who go on to museum careers.” Moreover, “It’s
great public speaking experience and a chance to do something for the college
and for the community,” she notes. “Increasingly, we see among students
that spirit of wanting to do something more for the community because the museum
is here not only for the Smith community, but also for schoolchildren, families
and visitors from all over the world.”
The grand reopening of the newly christened
Brown Fine Arts Center marks a new chapter in the teaching
of the visual arts at Smith, and a new book commemorates the completion
of this three-year
project.
Contributors include the architects who
redesigned the building, current and emeritus members of
the faculty, several current
and former museum staff members,
the art librarian and the director of image collections on the history of the
art department, Museum of Art and art library. A timeline weaves the separate
strands together. The hardbound book, richly illustrated with color images,
is available for $40 plus $4 shipping.
To order, call the
Museum Shop at (413) 585-2796, order online at www.smithmuseumstore.com,
or send a check payable to SCMA Shop, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton,
MA 01063. |
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