Online Features

“Walker Wisdom” Podcast Series

Developed by Andrew Tran ’26, Summer 2023 Education and Shop Assistant, this podcast series explores the lives of different staff members in the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. This project aims to increase the visibility of the Museum and solidify the institution as an educational resource welcoming to all perspectives and audiences.

Often, there is the perception that the “army” handling the operations behind museum exhibitions and artifacts remain hidden behind the curtain. The podcast will include an intro episode and 13 interview episodes; each is be 12-20 minutes long. I ask willing staff members about how they individually found their way to the museum field, how they envisioned art becoming part of their careers, their daily tasks, the obstacles they face during events (such as Night at the Museum and the Summer Opening), and how their jobs differ during the academic term and summer period, among other topics.

Explore the podcast series here: https://courses.bowdoin.edu/walker-wisdom-2023/

Looking Closer: A Collection Without Labels

Created by Summer Education and Shop Assistant, Gavin Sychterz ’25, Looking Closer is designed to introduce a new way to explore and appreciate artworks from the Bowdoin College Museum of Art’s permanent collection. The goal of this project is to challenge convention and encourage a diverse and enriched understanding of art through an interactive platform that moves beyond conventional curatorial labels.

In many museums, curatorial labels guide viewers towards a singular avenue of interpretation. Often, the voice of a select few individuals or museum authority dominates, leaving little room for individual imagination and creative thinking. This approach can inadvertently limit the richness and multitudes of perspectives that art can inspire. Looking Closer aims to break free from these constraints and empower the viewer to uncover the multitude of ways to enjoy and find meaning in art. Instead of traditional labels, a captivating array of artworks from the Museum’s diverse collection is displayed through the page “Artwork Gallery.” Each piece will be identified solely by its accession number, leaving a blank canvas for exploration.

Visit the website here: https://courses.bowdoin.edu/art-museum-label-project-2023/

Composer’s Concert at the Museum

Summer Education Intern, Tessa Frank ’23, compiles interviews, photo and video documentations for Bowdoin International Music Festival (BIMF)’s Composer’s Concert at the Museum series. This summer features the talented composers Sam Wu, Kai Kubota-Enright, (Luís) Daniel Jiménez Rojas, Younje Cho, Zihan Wu, Sami Seif, Xiaofeng Jiang, Benjamin Norbrook, and Kate Ragan; each musician selected a work of art on view at the BCMA to craft their original composition.

Visit the website here:

https://courses.bowdoin.edu/bimf-composers-concerts/

Experiencing Medieval Art Today: Using Contemporary Technologies to Present the Past in New Ways

A virtual exhibition curated by students in the art history class Building a Virtual Exhibition: A ‘Hands-On’ Experience (ARTH 1710), using works from the Wyvern Collection of medieval art.

**Miniature Altar of St. Catherine**, c.1520. Present-day Germany or Netherlands. Boxwood. Height: 5.9 in (15 cm); width (open): 6.7 in (17 cm). Wyvern Collection, 0323

The generous loan of works of art from the Wyvern Collection, one of the most important active private collections of medieval art today, has inspired student research and object-driven teaching from the moment it arrived on Bowdoin’s campus in the spring of 2019. While Covid-19 put a temporary halt to many in-person classes at Bowdoin, the pandemic was no match for the curiosity and eagerness across campus to explore and share these amazing works with the public. In the autumn of 2020, the students in the art history class Building a Virtual Exhibition: A ‘Hands-On’ Experience (ARTH 1710) worked collaboratively online to research and present some of the outstanding pieces of medieval art from the Wyvern Collection. Students worked primarily with items included in the BCMA exhibition New Views of the Middle Ages curated by Kathryn Gerry, the instructor of the course, in order to rethink and enhance the online presentation of medieval objects from a preliminary website launched by the Museum. Over the course of the semester, students explored a variety of new technologies and digital strategies drawn from the digital humanities and computer sciences, including 3D modelling, Augmented Reality (AR), and the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF). The results of their innovative thinking, collaborative exploration, and hard work are presented here, with the aim of offering knowledge and inspiration to our online community audience.

Site: https://bowdoin.edu/coursework/art-history/class-exhibitions/arth1710/

Skin Deep: Analyzing Black Representation in the teaching of Visual Arts

Skin Deep: Analyzing Black Representation in the teaching of Visual Arts – Destiny A. Kearney ’20 – Africana Studies 4051 – 2021

My honors project argues that at Bowdoin College, failure to provide Culturally Relevant Teaching (CRT) in art studio courses dismisses the representation of Blackness in the Visual Arts Department. My research has drawn directly from the frameworks of Ladson-Billings and Holloway in order to argue for the need for CRT in the studio art classroom.

Site: https://courses.bowdoin.edu/africana-studies-4051-2021-skin-deep/

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