The Lunder Institute for American Art at the Colby College Museum of Art makes Colby the only liberal arts college with both a world-class art museum and a global research center on American art. Museum partnerships with leading museums give students unique opportunities for research and internships, and visiting artists share new perspectives with students from all disciplines.
Colby is maximizing the potential of its Maine location through creating and enhancing affiliations with the Jackson Laboratory, MDI Biological Laboratory, the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, and the 7 Lakes Alliance. As the steward of Allen and Benner Islands, two historic islands five miles south of Port Clyde in the Gulf of Maine, Colby offers a significant coastal presence for a wide range of academic programs and activities.
As integrated extensions to Colby’s liberal arts curriculum, Colby Labs afford students incomparable experiences and opportunities at leading academic, business, government, and nonprofit organizations. Established Labs include the Buck Lab for Climate and Environment, the Linde Packman Lab for Biosciences Innovation, and the Halloran Lab for Entrepreneurship.
The Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence, established in 2021, is providing new pathways for talented students and faculty to research, create, and apply AI and machine learning across disciplines while setting a precedent for how liberal arts colleges can shape the future of AI.
Colby’s groundbreaking DavisConnects program is supporting opportunities for research, internships, global experiences, and postgraduate planning to ensure that all students pursue the experiences that will enhance their learning and prepare them to become leaders in a changing world.
Through major investments to grow and diversify the faculty, the College has added new academic programs in areas such as data science, computational biology, genomics, and environmental humanities and expanded many core areas, including the study of the environment and climate change, performance studies, and creative writing.