For Immediate Release

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Student-Organized Show Surface Tension Opens at SCMA

Northampton, MA July 19, 2011— The Smith College Museum of Artis announces the opening of Surface Tension: Reconsidering Water as Subject, the culminating exhibition for theSummer Institute in Art Museum Studies (SIAMS), a six-week intensive forcollege students that is administered by the Museum. This collaborativeexhibition, organized by the 15 students attending SIAMS 2011, will be on view July 22, 2011 through September 11, 2011.

Surface Tension consists of ten works by 20th-century artists thatinvestigate the physical relationship between water and its surroundings.The focused selection of paintings, prints, and sculpture (most by American artists) invites the viewer to carefully explore each work ondisplay.Several of the objects deal explicitly with the rhythm and texture ofwater’s surface, finding new ways to elaborate on modern modes ofrepresentation. Some transform common perceptions of the substance inorder explore its architectural qualities or its surprisingly solidappearance. Others obscure water’s perceivable characteristics or treat itas an invisible, environmental force. Together, these pieces actively avoidcontextualizing and symbolizing water, unsettling one’s impulse to createnarrative. Instead they challenge the viewer to look carefully andcritically, exploring the uneasy space between naturalism and totalabstraction.

The exhibition features modern and contemporary works from theMuseum’s permanent collection by Milton Avery, Richard Bosman, MarilynBridges, VijaCelmins, Harold Edgerton, WilliHartung, Brian Hunt,Margaretta Mitchell (Smith College class of 1957), Edward Ruscha, andSusan Heideman. Despite the artists’ diversestyles and media, their works share a focus on water as an abstractedsubject by emphasizing its textural and formal qualities.

Founded in 2006 by former SCMA director SuzannahFabing, SIAMSintroduces college students and recent graduates to the broad spectrumof career opportunities in the art museum field. Marion Goethals, formerdeputy director and director of programsat the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA)and Katy Kline, interim director at WCMA and previous director ofBowdoin College Museum of Art, led the program in its sixth year.

The SIAMS 2011 class includes five recent college graduates and tenundergraduates from ten states, including Hawaii; seven of the 15students attend one of three Five College schools: Smith (four students);UMass Amherst (two students); and Mount Holyoke (one student). During thesix-week intensive program, students are exposed to the museum field in avariety of ways. Rigorous classroom sessions explore the different facetsof museum operations, supplemented by weekly trips to regional museums.

Over the course of the program, SIAMS students visit over fifteen artsinstitutions ranging from academic, historical, and encyclopedic museumsto private collections, galleries and auction houses. These visits exposestudents to a variety of career options within the museum field. Careerexploration days with museum staff throughout the Pioneer Valley alsoallow for first-hand experience and further personal development.

Additionally, panels comprised of graduate students, faculty, andprofessionals help to guide students as they consider post-graduateoptions and career paths.In addition to classes and museum visits, SIAMS students workcollaboratively over the course of the program to develop and produce anexhibition at SCMA. At the start of this year’s program, students werepresented with a general theme (water), as well as a set of pre-selectedworks (39 total) from the Museum’s permanent collection. From these, thegroup chose to develop a “focus show” – one that would delve deeply intoa group of only ten objects.

Three teams were assembled: Curatorial, Education, and Design andPublic Presentation. Each team was assigned one or more mentors fromcorresponding departments within SCMA who worked closely withstudents throughout the development, preparation, and installation ofthe exhibition. Beyond the responsibilities of each individual team,students were also required to work together to generate and implement acohesive vision for the show.

During the development and design process, the students carefullyconsidered the desired impact of the art on the viewer. Their decision tofocus the show on a small selection of works was made in an effort tofacilitate for the viewer an in-depth exploration of the water theme, aswell as a personal experience with the objects on display.

A comprehensive exhibition catalogue was assembled by the curatorialand design teams. The essays included focuson the formal characteristics of the objects, relating them to theexhibition’s theme. The catalogue also features essays which examine selected works of art more generallywithin the context of their materials, the practice and methods of theartist, or in relation to theoretical considerations.

The supplementary materials accompanying this exhibition include gallery guides and interactive materials produced by theeducation team, encourage the audience to look closely at the objects ondisplay and to reconsider the significance of and techniques by whichwater is depicted in art.

Smith College is grateful to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, TheBrown Foundation, Inc., of Houston, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, andseveral individual donors for partial support of SIAMS.

SCMA is open year-round to the general public, Tuesday throughSunday. The Museum is closed Mondays and major holidays. For up-to-dateinformation on hours, fees, amenities, special exhibitions, and programs(including free Second Fridays), visit the Museum’s award-winning website:

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