A Year When Art Was Everywhere
The stars came to campus, and Colby created artistic opportunities for students and the community at large
For the arts at Colby, 2024 was all about access and expansion. The College enacted its artistic vision and mission across the campus, community, and country, bringing inspirational artists to Mayflower Hill to share their talents, inviting the community to engage with artistic expression on an everyday basis, and convening thought-leaders across the country to ponder the future of the visual arts.
In the spring, acclaimed children’s book author, illustrator, animator, and playwright Mo Willems capped a community celebration when he received an honorary degree and proceeded to race around the stage of the Gordon Center for Creative and Performing Arts like a cape-wearing superhero. “I’ve given out a number of these in my life, and that’s the first time anyone’s done a full-on dance and run,” President David A. Greene said to audience laughter.
Presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin ’64 returned to campus to deliver the commencement address. Noting some of the physical changes that have happened on campus, she said the most vital part of Colby remains unchanged. “And that is the relationship between the professors and the students.”
National Poet Laureate Ada Limón, a Time magazine woman of the year and MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient, enthralled students in the fall with her wisdom, friendliness, and humanity. During conversations with students and at a public talk, Limón urged people simply to write and not get bogged down in technique and perfection. “If you wrote a secret poem and you feel better, then the poem worked,” she said.
Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Colson Whitehead, who has also received a MacArthur “Genius Grant,” shared wide-ranging and often hilarious stories about writing and life during a late-winter visit to College as this year’s Kristina Stahl Writer-in-Residence. The annual program brings a nationally recognized writer to Colby to visit classes, lecture on craft, give a reading, and meet with creative writing students.
The literary theme continued throughout the year with Colby hosting the Elm City Small Press Fest, a daylong event with local and national artists, zine-makers, independent publishers, and community collectives organized and hosted by Colby Libraries, the Colby Arts Office, and the Maine Lit Fest, a statewide celebration of the literary arts.
During the Summer Luncheon, hosted annually by the Colby College Museum of Art, Greene announced not one, but two major art gifts that will transform campus life. A promised gift from the collection of Rob Radloff and Ann Beha, D.F.A. ’24 will create access to museum-quality art across campus to accentuate Colby’s conviction and commitment to the power and practice of “living with art.” It also dovetails with Colby’s ongoing efforts to elevate the arts across the College and create meaningful opportunities for all members of the community to integrate the arts into their daily lives.
Maine philanthropists David and Barbara Roux donated a bronze sculpture by the artist Henry Moore to the Colby Museum in honor of Peter Lunder ’56, D.F.A. ’98 and Life Trustee Paula Lunder, D.F.A. ’98. Nearly seven feet tall, Upright Motive No. 8, 1955-56 stands in a high-traffic spot near the museum, Art Department, and Grossman Hall, home of DavisConnects.
Collectively, the gifts will help create a campus where art is everywhere, “so you are always literally bumping into it,” Greene said. “These gifts are so transformative for Colby and for the way we live our lives here, and I am so grateful to Rob and Ann and to Dave and Barb.”
Meanwhile, the museum continued to expand its collection, acquiring works by Daniel Minter, D.F.A. ’23, Benny Andrews, Edgar Degas, and others.
It was an especially active year on the exhibition front, including a triumphant display of work by Louise Nevelson, a deep dive into the art of New York painter Martha Diamond, and an innovative and engaging hands-on show about the landmark art magazine Esopus, A Lot More Inside. The museum mounted an overdue solo exhibition of Maine native Eastman Johnson, looked to the sky to celebrate the cultural iconography of weathervanes, and reinstalled the Lunder Wing, an ambitious project that presents work from the museum’s permanent collection in a new light.
The Lunder Institute for American Art, which operates as a research and scholarship arm of the Colby Museum, engaged with museum leaders across the country as part of its Lunder Institute @ program to think about the future of American art. It then convened those leaders for a multi-day gathering in Waterville to discuss their thoughts and findings. The Lunder Institute also brought artists and others together for its annual Summer Think Tank, where conversations thrived.
Working close to home, Lunder Institute Fellow Dwayne Tomah began a yearlong residency after receiving an honorary degree from the College in May. A Passamaquoddy language keeper, storyteller, and cultural preservationist, Tomah’s gift is his ability to bridge cultures. “The more we educate, the more we do outreach, and the more we build these relationships with one another, the better off we will be,” he said. “For me to be able to receive this kind of prestigious recognition from Colby College speaks volumes of their commitment to getting a deeper understanding of Wabanaki people.”
Colby students got into the act, as well. For the first time, student artists in the senior art show exhibited their capstone projects off campus in the Joan Dignam Schmaltz Gallery of Art at the Colby Museum’s satellite gallery in the Paul J. Schupf Art Center in downtown Waterville. On campus, dozens more turned out for IN TANDEM: The Unconventional Fashion Experience, a Lyons Arts Lab-sponsored event that packed roughly 170 audience members and 45 collaborators into Studio 2 of the Gordon Center on a Saturday evening just before exams. For the fall production of Break, Burn, Build, the Department of Performance, Theater, and Dance presented a riveting, breath-catching production of dramatic and movement pieces that captivated audiences and accented the creative and technical capabilities of Studio 2 with striking lighting and dynamic seating that integrated audience members and the performers. And, several students represented the Art Department at a prestigious Boston printmaking competition, and some won awards for their work.
At the core of all of Colby’s arts activities is community. At no time was the connection to the community more direct than in Of This Place, a multilayered performance piece that premiered at the Gordon Center in February. Organized and directed by Visiting Assistant Professor of Performance, Theater, and Dance Matthew Cumbie, the project featured performers from Colby and the community and collected stories of Colby, Waterville, and the people who have shaped the communities, past and present. With a team of artistic collaborators, he wove the stories into a sweeping performance integrating dance, storytelling, projection, original music, and theatrical design elements.
“I hope that the questions we’re asking continue to evolve and grow as we all grow in time together,” he said. “That this is a process that we can continue to return to, explore, critique, and celebrate what it means to be here.”
