Happy New Year!  2016 promises to be an exciting year at the Museum. This month we open two new exhibitions: Elise Ansel: Distant Mirrors (opening January 14) and Dissent in 1960s America: The Photography of Ken Thompson (opening January 26). Both exhibitions are the product of fruitful collaborations between Museum staff and Bowdoin College faculty and students. Please join us on January 28 when Elise Ansel speaks with curator Joachim Homann and Han�tha V�t�-Congolo, associate professor of romance languages, about a new series of works by Ansel inspired by Annunciation, a ca. 1595 painting by Denys Calvaert in the Museum's collection. An open house at the Museum will follow this program. We look forward to seeing you then and on other occasions in the New Year.
 
With warm regards, 
 
Anne Collins Goodyear & Frank Goodyear
Co-Directors

Bowdoin College Museum of Art
exhibitions
CLOSING SOON
 
Olive Pierce: Photographing a Maine Fishing Community

Closing January 17, 2016

A Maine resident, photography teacher, and lifelong political activist, Olive Pierce began a ten-year project in 1986 photographing several families in Waldoboro, Maine who have long been associated with the fishing industry. This exhibition - curated by Sarah Haimes '15 under the direction of Art History professor Dana Byrd - brings together a selection of those photographs and tells the story of this revealing documentary project. Pierce recently donated twenty-six photographs from this series to the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
more
CONTINUING

To Count Art an Intimate Friend: Highlights from Bowdoin Collections, 1794 to the Present   

Closing June 5, 2016

To Count Art an Intimate Friend demonstrates how works of art contribute to the intellectual and personal growth intrinsic to great centers of learning and innovation. The show takes its cue from William DeWitt Hyde, President of the College 1885-1917, whose 1906 Offer of the College
enumerates the values of a liberal arts education: "
To be at home in all lands and all ages; to count Nature a familiar acquaintance, and Art an intimate friend..."
more
 
spotlights

 
Elise Ansel/Denys Calvaert: Contemporary Reflections on a Late Renaissance Painting
 
This exhibition of new work by Portland-based Elise Ansel is----in the best sense----confrontational. Her series of seven preparatory drawings and an equal number of oil paintings responds to a historic work in Bowdoin's collection, Denys Calvaert's Annunciation. When Ansel first encountered this religious scene last fall, which renders the angel Gabriel's announcement to the Virgin Mary, she was attracted to its brilliant colors and dynamic composition. Spending time with it, she became increasingly aware of the assumptions about gender roles, which infuse this religious painting by a male artist who was steeped in the traditions of a patriarchal society.
more  
museum news

New Student-Curated Exhibition Opens in the Becker Gallery

The Museum is pleased to announce the forthcoming exhibition, Dissent in 1960s America: The Photography of Ken Thompson. On view from January 26 to April 3 in the Becker Gallery----a space designed for faculty and student-curated installations ----this exhibition explores the work of a talented documentary photographer, who recorded many of the most important social and political events of the 1960s.  
more
Henrietta Benson Homer's Watercolors at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art 
 
Henrietta Benson Homer (1809-84), originally from Bucksport, Maine, was a talented watercolorist who specialized in nature studies. The  Museum holds thirty-one of Henrietta's detailed watercolors, twenty-four of which are studies of flora, fauna, and insects.   

membership
Become a Member of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art

We hope you'll visit the Museum this winter! There are several exhibitions, featuring art from ancient times to the present, on view for your enjoyment. For more information, please check our home page or contact Caroline Baljon, Membership and Programs Coordinator, at (207)-725-3276.
 
The support of our members helps us to realize future exhibitions, public programs, and educational offerings, which are always open to students and the general public. Membership offers special access to events and serves as a connection to a community of students and faculty, who are actively engaged in the Museum. If you are not already a member, we hope that you will show your support for the Bowdoin College Museum of Art by joining today!  
calendar
 
 
JANUARY 28
Distant Mirrors: Reflections on Painting,
Elise Ansel and Hanetha Vete-Congolo
4:30 pm
Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center
 more

JANUARY 28
Winter Open House
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
Museum of Art
more

 

Museum Hours
Tuesday - Saturday: 10:00 am - 5:00 pm  |  Thursday: 10:00 am - 8:30 pm  |  Sunday: 1:00 - 5:00 pm

Closed on Mondays and national holidays. 

 

The Bowdoin College Museum of Art is open to the public FREE of charge, although donations are welcome. The Museum is wheelchair accessible through the Pavilion entrance.

 

Bowdoin College Museum of Art  |  9400 College Station |  Brunswick, ME 04011  |  207.725.3275 

[email protected]  
    bowdoin.edu/art-museum       Directions





Bowdoin College Museum of Art | 9400 College Station | Brunswick | ME | 04011