Cheng Xing

On April 9, The Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) reopened with limited hours, allowing students living on campus and in residence an opportunity to explore the exhibitions on view. Up until this point in the semester, the Museum has only offered limited engagement opportunities for classes and individual research projects.

“We are so excited that it has been possible to reopen our doors to the campus community,” said Anne Collins Goodyear, co-director of the BCMA, in a Zoom interview with the Orient.

“Just as campus is only open right now to people who are part of the COVID[-19] testing program, the same thing is true for the Museum, and we’re open two days a week.”

The Museum’s new SAFE team is a task force composed of Museum staff tasked with creating a captivating, COVID-19-safe experience for those included in the College’s testing protocol.

“We thought a great deal about what it means to provide people with both a safe and engaging experience at the Museum,” BCMA co-director Frank Goodyear said in a Zoom interview with the Orient. “We’re pleased to offer this opportunity to students safely.”

Over the past year, very few members of the community have been able to see the various collections on display at the Museum. However, despite limited visitor capacity, the BCMA has unveiled two new exhibitions: “The New Views of the Middle Ages: Highlights from the Wyvern Collection,” which showcases a fresh look at medieval art, and “The Presence of the Past: Art from Central and West Africa,” which highlights social themes in art across these regions. The two co-directors encouraged the Bowdoin community to visit the new exhibitions in person.

“All of our new exhibitions have online components, but now many students have the opportunity to experience their richness in person,” said Goodyear. “We want to give students and the wider community the opportunity to go into the Museum, when they have a free moment, to enjoy the exhibitions that individuals spent years working on.”