When James Bowdoin III donated his private art collection to the College in 1811, he started a tradition that lives on today.
Under the tutelage of Associate Professor of Art History Linda Docherty, 13 students in her class—Private Treasures, Public Gifts, Art Collecting in America—spent last semester exploring this philanthropic practice as curators.
The exhibition they prepared, "Insight Out: Exploring Gifts of Art from Private Collectors," opened on January 24 at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
In celebration of the bicentennial anniversary of Bowdoin III's original gift, the exhibit features an eclectic mix of work from his collection and some of the museum's more recent acquisitions.
The students were able to cull favorites from artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, James Whistler, Winslow Homer, and Käthe Kollwitz.
The exhibition explores the different motivations behind the practices of collecting art and donating art.
The text in the Focus Gallery by the new exhibition reads: "By acquiring art and giving it away, private collectors seek to enrich the public."
In the case of Bowdoin III's donation, his gifts have become very valuable instruments not only for visitors to the museum, but for students as well.
In developing a collection based around Bowdoin III's original donation, the museum allowed Docherty's students to chart the historical progression of gifts from private collectors in America—seeing the similarities and differences in gifts over the years.
"The students experienced all aspects of museum work," Docherty said. "They had to decide how to hang the pieces, wrote catalogue entries, planned the reception, and evened worked with designer Michael Mahan to come up with the flyer."
"The most rewarding part of this experience for me was the interaction with the artworks," said Abigail Geringer '14. "We reached a level of intimacy with the works that we couldn't get from simply walking into the museum and seeing them hanging on a wall."
Other students agreed, saying that their work as curators afforded them a unique perspective.
"It was really exciting to be the people behind the scenes, and to look at our show now and see how much we've accomplished," said Lizzy Tarr '12
Moreover, Docherty felt the exhibition benefitted from the wide-ranging academic backgrounds different students brought to the table.
"The students all came from various academic backgrounds such as history, biology, psychology, the visual arts, foreign languages, and government," she said. "Thus, we had help with how the art was made, historical context, and our resident biologist even helped understanding a piece on infectious disease."
Although there have been several exhibitions curated by students since the museum reopened in 2007, "Insight Out" was the most extensive of all those that have been done since, according to Docherty.
This semester, Associate Professor of Art History Pamela Fletcher will be working with two students to create another student-curated exhibition.
Isabel Taube, professor of art history at the School of Visual Arts in New York, will speak in conjunction with "Insight Out." Her talk, "American Artists as Collectors and Tastemakers: Objects, History, and the Imagined Self," will take place in the Main Lounge of Moulton Union at 7 p.m.
Docherty's students will be hosting the opening reception for their exhibit at the museum immediately following the talk.
"Insight Out" will be on view through April 15.