In the first installment of a two-part lecture series celebrating 200 years of art collecting at Bowdoin, Andrew McClellan, professor of art history at Tufts University, will deliver a lecture titled "Private Collecting in the Age of Museums" next Thursday.
Joachim Homann, the museum's curator, said that McClellan "has been the leading voice in America to investigate the history of art museums—with a focus on the rise of art museums in the culture of the Enlightenment and development of art museums in the last two centuries."
"He was the first to demonstrate the foundation of the Louvre in Paris not only created the institution of the public art museums but with it, the thinking of a way of seeing art and producing art," he added. "He has since then explored how art museums in America have developed and grown."
Homann said he hopes McClellan will generate ideas as to how the Bowdoin Museum of Art can contribute to larger academic inquiries on campus.
"My expectation is that Andrew McClellan is going to provide us with a display of the context of our museum, so that we can see through his talk how the Bowdoin College Museum of Art fits into the paradigm of development and growth of art museums in this country," he said.
The Bowdoin College Museum of Art is sponsoring McClellan's visit to campus.
McClellan's talk will take place on April 12th at 4:30 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium in the Visual Arts Center.
-Compiled by Tasha Sandoval.