Colby Museum Winter/Spring 2011 News
Building the Museum’s Future
The
Colby Museum will partially close starting Oct. 3, 2011, for construction of a
new addition and renovations to existing museum spaces. Slated to open in the summer
of 2013 in celebration of Colby’s bicentennial, the new wing will consist 
of an
additional 10,000 square feet of exhibition galleries, new art studios for
photography and foundations classes, additional classroom space, and an
expanded lobby and sculpture terrace. Designed by Los Angeles architects
Frederick Fisher and Partners, the addition will accommodate the extraordinary
Lunder Collection, promised to the College by Peter H. Lunder ’56, D.F.A ’98
and Paula Crane Lunder, D.F.A ’98 in 2007. The Museum will fully reopen in 2013
with a museum-wide exhibition of the Lunder Collection.
During construction, the Museum
will continue its outreach to Colby faculty and students, making the collection
available to classes across the curriculum. The Museum will also undertake
programming in local schools that will sustain and strengthen connections to
these communities until the reopening. The Paul J. Schupf Wing for the Works of
Alex Katz and part of the Lower Jetté Galleries will remain open to visitors
throughout construction.
A
Welcome Return
Following a two-year hiatus, the
Joan Whitney Payson Collection returns to Waterville for an exhibition that
will combine its strengths in Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and
portraiture with selections from the Colby Museum’s permanent collection. The
Payson Collection includes works by Gustave Courbet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and
Alfred Sisley, which will appear with Colby paintings and watercolors by Mary
Cassatt, Maurice Prendergast, and Rockwell Kent, among others. On view through
June 12.
Revisiting the Documentary
Photograph
The
Colby Museum is the third and final stop of American
Modern: Abbott, Evans, Bourke-White, an exhibition that offers new insight
into the flourishing genre of documentary photography in the 1930s through the work
of three American photographers. Organized by the Amon Carter Museum and the
Colby Museum, the exhibition comes to Waterville after a stop at the Art
Institute of Chicago. On view from July 9 through Oct. 2.
Robot
in the Museum
Last
spring a robot explored the Colby College Museum of Art. Developed by Colby
Computer Science Professor Bruce Maxwell and Professor William Smart from
Washington University in St. Louis, the robot was built and programmed by
Maxwell and his students to allow people to remotely view works of art in the
Museum. Maxwell’s student Bogumil Giertler ’12 received a student scholarship
from Apple for his work on the robot and was invited to show off its
gallery-roaming abilities at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2010 in
San Francisco in June, where participants were invited to control the robot's
movements and take a virtual tour of the Museum. Read more at http://insidecolby.com/article.php?articleid=339.
Image
credits:
East façade, Colby College
Museum of Art Expansion, © Frederick Fisher and Partners Architects
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Confidences, c. 1874. Oil on canvas, 32
x 23 3/4 inches. The Joan Whitney Payson Collection at the Portland Museum of
Art, Maine. Gift of John Whitney Payson.
Berenice Abbott, Canyon, Broadway and Exchange Place,
1936. Gelatin silver print, 9 5/6 x 7 ½ inches. National Gallery of Art, Gift
of Marvin Breckinridge Patterson.
Exhibitions
Susan Hiller: The J. Street
Project
March
3–June 12, 2011
Scott Reed: Characters
Through
March 20, 2011
Senior Art Exhibition
May
5–May 22, 2011
Clemens Kalischer: Displaced
Persons
Through
June 12, 2011
Photographs from the
Collection of Norma B. Marin
Through
June 12, 2011
The Joan Whitney Payson
Collection with Works from the Permanent Collection
Through
June 12, 2011
American Modern: Documentary
Photography by Abbott, Evans, and Bourke-White
July
9–Oct. 2, 2011
Alex Katz: Drawings
Through
Oct. 2, 2011
Inspired by Buddhism: Asian
Art from the Permanent Collection
Through
Oct. 2, 2011
Little Elegies: The Art of
Nineteenth-Century Mourning
Through
Oct. 2, 2011
Recent Acquisitions in
Contemporary Art
Through
Oct. 2, 2011
Selections from the
Permanent Collection
Through
Oct. 2, 2011
Upcoming
Events at the Colby College Museum of Art
Noontime Art Talk: Albert Bierstadt and Chimney Rock
Thursday, February 24, 12:30 pm
Michael
Marlais, James M. Gillespie Professor of Art
First Thursdays
Thursday, March 3, 4:30 pm
Opening
reception for Susan
Hiller: The J. Street Project
Dance
performance by the Colby Collaborative Company
The Miles and Katherine Culbertson Prentice Distinguished
Lecture
Monday, March 7, 7 pm, Olin
1
A
conversation with Susan Hiller, Assistant Professor Sarah Keller, and Associate
Professor Steve Wurtzler moderated by Mirken Curator of Education Lauren
Lessing, and a screening of Hiller’s The
Last Silent Movie (2007).
Gallery Talk: Inspired by Buddhism
Thursday, March 10, 12:30 pm
Ankeney
Weitz, associate professor of Art and East Asian Studies, will discuss the
exhibition Inspired
by Buddhism: Asian Art from the Permanent Collection.
Masters of Tradition: Traditional Irish Music
Friday, March 11, 12:00 pm
Nicole Rabata, flute; David Surette, guitar; Seamus
Connolly, master fiddler
A concert of traditional Irish music presented
by master-fiddler Seamus Connolly, finger-style guitarist David Surette, and
flautist Nicole Rabata. Endowed chair and the Sullivan Artist in Residence at
Boston College, Connolly won the Irish National Fiddle Championship 10 times,
was named Traditional Musician of the Year in 2002 and is widely regarded as
one of the world's most respected traditional Irish musicians and teachers. The
trio will perform an exciting and varied program of authentic traditional music
in time to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.
Noontime Art Talk: Knots In Blue
Thursday, March 17, 12:30 pm
Scott
Taylor, assistant professor of mathematics, will discuss Terry Winters's In Blue (2008).
James M. Carpenter Lecture
Wednesday, March 30, 7:30 pm, Given
Auditorium
“Reading
and Seeing: The Beginnings of Book Illumination and the Modern Discourse on
Ethnicity”
Lawrence
Nees, Department of Art History, University of Delaware
Film screening: Sanctus
Thursday, March 31, 12:30 pm
Sanctus
(1990, 18 min, director Barbara Hammer)
Noontime Art Talk: Buddhist Poetry
Wednesday, April 6, 12:30 pm
Peter
Harris, Zacamy Professor of English
First Thursdays
Thursday, April 7, 4:30 pm
Museum
Open House
Live
music
Noontime Art Talk: Landscape and Memory: Susan Hiller's The
J. Street Project
Wednesday, April 13, 12:30 pm
Steve
Wurtzler, Associate Professor of Cinema Studies
Film screening: The Secret Story
Monday, April 18, 12:30 pm
The
Secret Story (1996, 9 min, director Janie Geiser)
Artist Talk: Clemens Kalischer
Wednesday, April 20, 7 pm, Upper Jetté Galleries
In
conjunction with the exhibition Clemens
Kalischer: Displaced Persons, the artist will discuss his work.
Eggs-ploring Art
Saturday, April 23, 10 am
In
conjunction with Freshwater Arts in Waterville and Waterville Main Street, the
Museum offers Eggs-ploring
Art, which begins with a scavenger hunt at the Museum followed by
an egg-decorating workshop at Freshwater Arts. This event is free and open to
all ages, but attendance is limited and preregistration is required. To
register, please call 207.859.5613.
First Thursdays
Thursday, May 5, 4:30 pm
Opening
reception for the Senior
Art Exhibition
Live
music
The
Colby College Museum of Art is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday,
noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free and the museum is accessible to people
with disabilities. For more information call 859-5600 or visit http://www.colby.edu/museum/.
