{"id":172280,"date":"2026-03-26T09:13:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T13:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=172280"},"modified":"2026-03-26T14:32:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T18:32:50","slug":"night-at-the-museum-the-community-curates-museum-of-arts-permanent-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2026\/03\/26\/night-at-the-museum-the-community-curates-museum-of-arts-permanent-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"Night at the museum: The community curates Museum of Art\u2019s permanent collection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During the first-ever Bates Curates event in March, faculty, staff, and students, and President Garry W. Jenkins, became \u201ccurators\u201d as they gathered to select a new addition to the Museum of Art\u2019s permanent collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carrie Cushman, director of the Bates Museum of Art, devised the idea for the event, which she hopes will be the first of many. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis program enabled us to start a conversation with the community about what it means to be a collecting institution in the 21st century,\u201d Cushman said. \u201cWe were able to educate students, faculty, and staff on the strengths of our own collection and to build communal investment in its future.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Samantha Sigmon, Bates Museum of Art assistant curator, speaks to Bates Curates attendees about the museum\u2019s recent exhibition, Shellburne Thurber: Full Circle<\/em>. (Sammy Weidenthal \u201927 for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Bates Curates event was centered around the museum\u2019s recent exhibition Shellburne Thurber: Full Circle<\/em>, 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\u2019s decades-long career as a photographer, primarily capturing images of homes and the people who occupy them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThurber is known for crafting photographs of interior spaces that capture people’s personalities and presence,\u201d Sigmon said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Two
At right, Carrie Cushman, director of the Bates Museum of Art, gazes at Shellburne Thurber’s photographs with a Bates community member during Bates Curates. (Sammy Weidenthal \u201927 for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Prior to the launch of Bates Curates, museum staff had selected three works  \u2014 respectively titled \u201cPhantom Limb: My Dresser Top at Night,\u201d \u201cNewtonville, MA: Blue Couch with Multiple Portraits of Freud,\u201d and \u201cSelf Portrait Sitting on the Porch in New Hampshire\u201d \u2014  from the exhibition for potential acquisition, made possible by the Barbara Morris Goodbody Collection Endowment Fund, to the museum\u2019s collection of 8,000-plus objects. But, they planned to purchase just one work \u2014 and that\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"A
\u201cPhantom Limb: My Dresser Top at Night” (Courtesy of Shellburne Thurber)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone was visibly excited to take part in voting and hearing more about the artist and each of the three works,\u201d Sigmon said. \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attendees were eager to learn more about the museum and offer their input on the selected photographs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Bates Curates was an inspiring and creative way to connect the campus community with the art museum while showcasing its exhibitions,\u201d said Krystie Wilfong, associate college librarian for collection management and scholarly communications. \u201cHearing Samantha speak about the identified works offered a fascinating behind-the-scenes perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"A
\u201cNewtonville, MA: Blue Couch with Multiple Portraits of Freud\u201d (Courtesy of Shellburne Thurber)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The event was an opportunity to renew interest in the museum\u2019s permanent collection specifically, while also \u201cdemonstrating accountability\u201d to the Bates community, Cushman explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d said Charles Nero, Benjamin E. Mays \u201920 Distinguished Prof of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though each piece received a similar number of votes, attendees ultimately selected Thurber\u2019s \u201cSelf Portrait Sitting on the Porch in New Hampshire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKnowing that an artwork I voted for will become part of the permanent collection makes the experience feel especially meaningful,” Wilfong said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
\u201cSelf Portrait Sitting on the Porch in New Hampshire\u201d (Courtesy of Shellburne Thurber)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Featuring the photographer herself on a porch, harshly lit by a bright sun, the photo is distinctively different from Thurber\u2019s usual compositions of interior spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe artist sits on the porch of her family lakehouse, a place incredibly entangled with her life and work. \u2026 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,\u201d Sigmon said. \u201cTo 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Bates Curates attendees cast their votes for which photograph the museum would acquire. (Sammy Weidenthal \u201927 for Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSelf Portrait Sitting on the Porch in New Hampshire\u201d nicely complements the museum\u2019s preexisting repertoire of artist self-portraits and contemporary photography, Sigmon said. It\u2019s also a unique holding from Thurber, who has rarely displayed her portraits of friends, family, and herself despite capturing many throughout her career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was an honor to display this work and her other portraits at the Bates College Museum of Art,\u201d Sigmon said. \u201cAs the curator, I love that we get to keep a photograph that sets us apart from her previous exhibitions elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the first-ever Bates Curates event in March, faculty, staff, and students, and President Garry W. Jenkins, became \u201ccurators\u201d as they gathered to select a new addition to the Museum of Art\u2019s permanent collection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1827,"featured_media":172288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[11010,1,130],"tags":[1100,1363,2479],"class_list":["post-172280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-batesnews","category-collaboration","tag-arts-at-bates","tag-bates-college-museum-of-art","tag-community"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1827"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172280"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172344,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172280\/revisions\/172344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}