Looking Back and Forward: The Museum Turns 50

An exhibition titled Art at Colby: Celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Colby College Museum of Art opens July 11 in honor of the museum’s semi-centenary. The exhibit traces the history of the collection and showcases its highlights, including more than 75 works from the Lunder Collection (promised to the museum by Paula and Peter Lunder ’56), said the museum’s Carolyn Muzzy Director and Chief Curator Sharon Corwin.

The exhibit is ordered chronologically by date of acquisition, tracing landmark acquisitions, such as Winslow Homer’s The Trapper and more than 350 pieces from the collection. Visitors will be able to listen to guided audio tours via their cell phones.

A book to complement the exhibition, titled Art at Colby, includes 144 brief essays detailing 176 pieces in the collection. The 98 essay contributors represent a variety of professions, including art historians, poets, curators, and others from a broad range of disciplines. The museum staff is also organizing an October 9-10 symposium titled “American School: American Art and Pedagogy,” to bring together scholars of American art.

Moving forward, new acquisitions will continue to address specific goals. “We’re looking to strengthen the contemporary and American holdings,” Corwin said.

“We’re also looking to expand the collection of teaching objects—works that can be used by faculty in courses.” Corwin said she and her colleagues hope to expand the breadth of the museum’s outreach and engagement both on campus and in the local community, and the symposium is expected to continue to move the museum toward those goals. “We’d like to further establish ourselves as a national presence in terms of scholarship and our exhibitions.”