The original notion for what became the book Art at Colby: Celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Colby College Museum of Art, was to showcase 50 works, one for each year of the museum’s existence. But the project soon grew. “At every meeting, we kept adding works,” said Carolyn Muzzy Director and Chief Curator Sharon Corwin.

Ultimately, the book became an opus that includes 176 works with accompanying commentary, providing a comprehensive overview of the collection. Works range from early Chinese and classical art to installations and video, with an in-depth selection from the Lunder Collection.

Art at Colby offers not only lavish reproductions of the works, but also illuminates the art with essays (and even a few poems) by 98 authors, including eminent artists, curators, and art historians. Added to the mix are Colby faculty from a variety of disciplines and students who have done art scholarship. “We wanted to have a multiplicity of voices,” Corwin said.

Contributors were chosen for both their knowledge and perspective, she said. They included nationally known experts like Elizabeth Broun, a museum supporter and director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum; H. Barbara Weinberg, curator of American paintings and sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and James Cuno, president and director of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Colby Museum of Art curators wrote essays for the book, as did faculty members, some of whom might seem unlikely choices for a book about art. But paleobotanist Robert A. Gastaldo (geology), who wrote about Philip Taaffe’s painting Garden of Extinct Leaves, 2006, brings a scientist’s power of observation to his essay. Kerill N. O’Neill (classics) explains the Roman custom of a household god (or Lar) as he describes the Augustan-era statue in the Colby collection.

While the book project was a huge undertaking, it required coordination but no arm twisting. “It’s a labor of love,” Corwin said.

—Gerry Boyle ’78

Art at Colby: Celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Colby College Museum of Art is available for purchase  online at www.artbook.com