Media Coverage

The Portland Press Herald shared updates on the construction of the Paul J. Schupf Art Center. What the Herald calls the “cornerstone of downtown Waterville’s rebirth” is expected to open in early December, with art galleries, cinema, teaching space, and a caf​​é.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson will be the Colby commencement speaker for 2022, reported the Bangor Daily News and Portland Press Herald. Commencement will take place on May 22, and other featured speakers will include artist Jamie Wyeth and Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Portland Press Herald included a lobster-industry report by Professor of Economics Michael Donihue in a piece about the sector. Donihue called the lobster industry “possibly the most economically important asset for the state.”

The Portland Press Herald ran a review of the "Poetics of Atmosphere," a show that includes a video by Lorna Simpson called “Cloudscape” and other works from the museum. The article highlights the incorporation of artworks from the museum’s permanent collection, adding that Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Siera Hyte, “created an atmosphere of discovery.”

Various regional media, including the Portland Press Herald, covered an important new report about decriminalizing drug use and possession in Maine. The lead author, Winifred Tate, an associate professor of anthropology at Colby and director of the College’s Maine Drug Policy Lab, noted that, “there's clear consensus for a public health approach addressing the needs of people with substance use disorder, but current policies don’t back that up.”

Art Daily published a story about the Colby Museum’s current exhibition Act of Sight: The Tsiaras Family Photography Collection. The article noted that the show includes “many rare and unpublished images by well-known photographers who collectively represent some of the most significant work in the medium over the last century.”

National Public Radio turned to Colby twice last week. For the first segment, Vlada Trofimchuk ’23 was interviewed about being a Ukrainian student currently studying in the U.S., while the second story included commentary from Visiting Assistant Professor of History Virginia Olmsted McGraw about the power of clothing in war.

The Art Newspaper announced that the Colby College Museum of Art has acquired Coming to Jones Road #4: Under a Blood Red Sky (2000) by Faith Ringgold, a renowned American artist, activist, and teacher. The iconic painted textile strengthens the museum’s holdings of works by influential women artists and Black artists, and will be on view this spring.

Georgia Dettmann ’22, an environmental policy major, had her honors thesis research highlighted in a blog post on ReVision Energy’s website. Dettmann’s research is part of the Maine Cannabis Cultivation Working Group, an interdisciplinary research group at Colby exploring the expansion of legal cannabis cultivation in Maine convened by the Maine Drug Policy Lab, directed by Associate Professor of Anthropology Winifred Tate.

Mainebiz spoke with Doug Terp about the success of the college's endowment over recent years. Among other things, he noted in the story how Colby’s endowment "translates into real impact for our students.”