Student Projects

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/

Summer 2021 Intern Presentations

Summer interns at the BCMA discuss their internship experience this summer and share their personal highlights from working at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. The presentation give a behind-the-scenes look at the student internship program and the diverse range of curatorial, educational, and research projects.

The 2021 Bowdoin student interns are: Thais Carrillo ’23, Darien Gillespie ’24, Katie King ’23, Amira Oguntoyinbo ’24, Cameron Snow ’22, Lily Weafer ’23, and Cheng Xing ’23. Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Recorded on August 11, 2021.

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/

Creeping Pavement: Depictions of an Urbanizing America

Creeping Pavement explores artists’ changing attitudes toward urban spaces over the course of the late nineteenth to twentieth centuries, as depicted through a variety of media. This exhibition was curated by members of the 2019–2020 Student Museum Collective—Sylvia Bosco ’21, Joseph Hilleary ’20, Cassie Jackson ’22, Sabrina Lin ’21, and Ben Wu ’18—and is supported by the Becker Fund for the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

In America, cities are places of contrast and connection. They bring people together, yet often highlight the tensions that divide us. Cities are home to both the wealthy and the least privileged. Inhabitants hail from near and far, yet all see themselves as a part of the city’s identity. Thus, the art created when these urban centers developed offers a unique perspective on American life in the nineteenth and twentieth century.

Tracing the evolution of the American city as it grew into its own distinct environment, this exhibition explores the many ways artists reacted to the rapid urbanization of American life. From the landscapes that foreshadow the industrialization and commercialization to come, to more recent urban views, the selected works of art interrogate the concept of the city, asking: Where did the city come from? Who was it intended for? How did it create and change the fabric of community? Artists highlight the many different facets of a perpetually developing urban landscape, investigating the ever-changing qualities that characterize the city today. The artists encourage us to look critically, quizzically, and lovingly at big cities like New York, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. These images inspire us to find continuity and to celebrate our shared humanity, even as we still grapple with the social, political, and environmental ramifications of urbanity. If recent events have demonstrated the vulnerability and even the fragility of cities and their inhabitants, these photographs from the past provide a powerful reminder of their resilience.

Site: https://bowdoin.edu/art-museum/exhibitions/2020/creeping-pavement.html

Art Up Close | We Never See Anything Clearly: William Henry Hunt’s “Fungi”

Episode 8: “We Never See Anything Clearly: William Henry Hunt’s Fungi” with Pamela Fletcher.

Enjoy this eighth episode in this series of bite-sized conversations aimed at connecting students and members of the Bowdoin community with works in the Bowdoin College Museum of Art’s collection. In this episode, Pamela Fletcher, Professor of Art History, Bowdoin College, discusses a watercolor and gouache, “Fungi,” by William Henry Hunt. Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

Recorded on March 10, 2021.

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