Colby Museum to Celebrate Art Museum Day May 18 

May 1, 2011

Waterville, Maine—The Colby College Museum of Art will offer a free copy of its 50th anniversary catalogue, Art at Colby, Celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Colby College Museum of Art, to the first 50 visitors as part of the Association of Art Museum Directors’ (AAMD) Art Museum Day May 18. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and admission is, as always, free.

With more than 170 artworks and commissioned texts, including original poems, by 98 writers and artists—such as Barbara Haskell, Bill Berkson, Carol Troyen, Michael Leja, Rachael Ziady DeLue, Geoffrey Batchen, Sanford Schwartz, Anne M. Wagner, Ron Padgett, Irving Sandler and Lydia Yee—Art at Colby highlights artworks that represent the full scope of the museum's superb holdings. The works span the entire history of American art (with a particularly fine selection of painting from New York since 1960), and also include examples of European and Asian works. Texts by a range of writers—scholars, curators, critics and artists—are paired with reproductions of pieces from the collection: James Cuno on Henri Fantin-Latour, Rackstraw Downes on John Marin, Alex Katz on Winslow Homer and Richard Hell on Joe Brainard, for example.

Participation by AAMD member museums emphasizes the lasting impact art museums have on their communities, highlights the value of the visual arts in society, and provides new opportunities for audiences to participate in the wide-ranging programs that art museums offer. “We are so pleased to be able to actively participate in Art Museum Day as part of the larger International Museum Day. We always look forward to sharing the museum and its programs with the Waterville community and beyond,” said Sharon Corwin, director of the Colby College Museum of Art.

Coinciding with International Museum Day, Art Museum Day will focus on the theme of museum and memory. “Art Museum Day is an opportunity to celebrate the collective memory of human creativity, both past and present, that art museums hold in the public trust,” said Kaywin Feldman, president of AAMD and director and president of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. “AAMD believes that art should be accessible and relevant to all, and we are so pleased that Colby College Museum of Art is joining with us and the global community of museums to create new opportunities for audiences to engage with museum collections and programs.”

Member museums—located across the United States, Canada, and Mexico—include smaller regional museums as well as large international institutions. International Museum Day is organized annually around the world by the International Council of Museums (ICOM). AAMD’s Art Museum Day is an opportunity to focus attention on the role of art museums in North America, as part of ICOM’s global celebration of museums. A comprehensive list of participating AAMD member art museums will be available online at www.aamd.org/newsroom.

The Colby College Museum of Art is open Sunday noon to 4:30 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and until 8 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month during the academic year. It is closed on Mondays.