During the first-ever Bates Curates event in March, faculty, staff, and students, and President Garry W. Jenkins, became “curators” as they gathered to select a new addition to the Museum of Art’s permanent collection.
Carrie Cushman, director of the Bates Museum of Art, devised the idea for the event, which she hopes will be the first of many.
“This program enabled us to start a conversation with the community about what it means to be a collecting institution in the 21st century,” Cushman said. “We were able to educate students, faculty, and staff on the strengths of our own collection and to build communal investment in its future.”
The Bates Curates event was centered around the museum’s recent exhibition Shellburne Thurber: Full Circle, which ran from October 2025 to March. Curated by Bates Museum of Art Assistant Curator Samantha Sigmon, in collaboration with Thurber, the exhibition featured works from across the New England-based Thurber’s decades-long career as a photographer, primarily capturing images of homes and the people who occupy them.
“Thurber is known for crafting photographs of interior spaces that capture people’s personalities and presence,” Sigmon said.
Prior to the launch of Bates Curates, museum staff had selected three works — respectively titled “Phantom Limb: My Dresser Top at Night,” “Newtonville, MA: Blue Couch with Multiple Portraits of Freud,” and “Self Portrait Sitting on the Porch in New Hampshire” — from the exhibition for potential acquisition, made possible by the Barbara Morris Goodbody Collection Endowment Fund, to the museum’s collection of 8,000-plus objects. But, they planned to purchase just one work — and that’s where the Bates community came in. Cushman and Sigmon invited faculty, staff, and students to the museum for an evening to tour the exhibition and vote on which work they should select.
“Everyone was visibly excited to take part in voting and hearing more about the artist and each of the three works,” Sigmon said. “The experience truly enlivened our galleries. I’m thrilled that we could lift the curtain regarding how our collections are built and include our audience in such an integral museum responsibility.”
Attendees were eager to learn more about the museum and offer their input on the selected photographs.
“Bates Curates was an inspiring and creative way to connect the campus community with the art museum while showcasing its exhibitions,” said Krystie Wilfong, associate college librarian for collection management and scholarly communications. “Hearing Samantha speak about the identified works offered a fascinating behind-the-scenes perspective.”
The event was an opportunity to renew interest in the museum’s permanent collection specifically, while also “demonstrating accountability” to the Bates community, Cushman explained.
“I appreciated Carrie’s explanation that events like Bates Curates were meant to be part of an intervention in the colonial practices that had shaped art collecting,” said Charles Nero, Benjamin E. Mays ’20 Distinguished Prof of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies.
Though each piece received a similar number of votes, attendees ultimately selected Thurber’s “Self Portrait Sitting on the Porch in New Hampshire.”
“Knowing that an artwork I voted for will become part of the permanent collection makes the experience feel especially meaningful,” Wilfong said.
Featuring the photographer herself on a porch, harshly lit by a bright sun, the photo is distinctively different from Thurber’s usual compositions of interior spaces.
“The artist sits on the porch of her family lakehouse, a place incredibly entangled with her life and work. … She is not looking directly at the camera, and we see her in an everyday moment that captures her in a way a more polished portrait might not,” Sigmon said. “To me, it is as if we are right there next to Thurber in mid-discussion. Thurber’s power to transport us into the photograph really draws people in.”
“Self Portrait Sitting on the Porch in New Hampshire” nicely complements the museum’s preexisting repertoire of artist self-portraits and contemporary photography, Sigmon said. It’s also a unique holding from Thurber, who has rarely displayed her portraits of friends, family, and herself despite capturing many throughout her career.
“It was an honor to display this work and her other portraits at the Bates College Museum of Art,” Sigmon said. “As the curator, I love that we get to keep a photograph that sets us apart from her previous exhibitions elsewhere.”
