Although the sight of daffodils seems to be a distant daydream as we continue to defrost our windshields and shovel our driveways, the Bowdoin students are back to campus to begin their spring semester.

The Bowdoin students’ academic and social engagement with the Museum of Art is integral to the Museum’s academic mission and a valued contribution to its identity. Partnering with academic departments, faculty members, and student societies, the Museum is always eager to foster discussion and make its unique resources available to students in class visits, tours, research appointments, and professional internships. This spring, the Museum will host a large number of student-led and student-oriented exhibitions and programs.

In particular, be sure to see three new student-curated exhibitions: Sosaku-hanga: Twentieth-Century Japanese Creative Prints, curated by the students in Professor Alison Miller’s seminar, and Postwar Hiroshima: Chuzo Tamotzu, Children’s Drawings, and the Art of Resolution, co-curated by Michael Amano ’17 and Ginny Crow ’18, both of which opened in January. The third exhibition, Urban Impressions: New York City in Prints, 1900-1940, curated by Sarah Freshnock ’17, will open on March 30th.

The Museum looks forward to offering an exciting schedule of student-led Museum programs to the public in the coming months. In addition to the monthly Family Saturday programs led by the BCMA’s Student Education Assistants Blanche Froelich ’19 and Eliza Graumlich ’17, students will lead gallery talks, create performances, and lead debates. Student led events this spring also include the Spring Student Night with an a capella performance and a hands-on drawing evening to celebrate the opening of Why Draw?: 500 Years of Drawings and Watercolors at Bowdoin College in May.

Please find the spring semester student-led programs listed below:

January 31, 12:00 noon

Bowdoin senior, Michael Amano ’17, will be leading a gallery conversation on the exhibition he co-curated with fellow student Ginny Crow ’18 as the two recipients of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art’s Summer Curatorial Fellowship. During this fellowship, Michael Amano spent six weeks in Japan conducting research and interviews, which are key components of the exhibition Perspectives from Postwar Hiroshima: Chuzo Tamotzu, Children’s Drawings, and the Art of Resolution.

February 10, 12:00 noon

Assistant Art History Professor Alison Miller and her students from the fall 2016 seminar “Japanese Prints” will discuss their academic and curatorial experience planning the installation Sosaku-hanga: Twentieth-Century Japanese Creative Prints, and the artistic expression in modern Japanese prints.

February 17, 3:30 pm

Members of Bowdoin Art Society, a student-led organization on campus with the goal of “challenging the parameters of the arts,” will utilize works currently on view at the BCMA to lead a discussion on a prevalent art-world debate.

February 23, 7:00 pm

The student-led organization Bowdoin Slam Poets Society and student dances will respond to the works on view and reflect on personal experiences through their own forms of performance art.

March 30, 5:00pm

Urban Impressions: New York City in Prints, 1900-1940 is curated by Bowdoin senior Sarah Freshnock ’17, who developed the exhibition during an Independent Study with Assistant Professor of Art History, Dana Byrd. Sarah will lead a gallery talk discussing the printing techniques utilized by the artists represented in the exhibition.

March 31, 1:00pm-4:30pm:

Michael Amano ’17 will participate in a symposium titled “Perspectives from Postwar Horshima: Chuzo Tamotzu, Children’s Drawings, and the Art of Resolution, A Symposium” with the following scholars and artists: Yukiyo Kawano, artist; Roger Shimomura, University Distinguished Professor of Art Emeritus, The University of Kansas; Mark Selden, professor emeritus of sociology and history, State University of New York at Binghamton; John K.W. Tchen, founding director, Asia/Pacific/American Insititue; Aiko Isumisawa, independent scholar. This symposium, organized in conjunction with the exhibition co-curated by Michael, will explore the cultural implications of World War II and the role of art in responding to political and social conflict.

April 11, 12:00 noon

Sarah Freshnock ’17 and Mary Hart, visiting professor of art and printmaker, will discuss the printing techniques on view in the exhibition curated by Sarah: Urban Impressions: New York City in Prints, 1900-1940.

It is sure to be an exciting spring at the Museum and we hope to see you all here!