Jean (Hans) Arp (Fr. 1887-1966)
Torso, 1953
White marble on polished black marble base
Photo by ©2001 Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York/VG Bild-Kunst. Bonn

Smith College Museum of Art is a distinguished college art museum with a strong public focus. It is located in the heart of Northampton, MA -- less than five minutes off I-91 and only a short walk up the hill from Northampton’s vibrant, “artsy” downtown which is filled with great restaurants, galleries, hotels and shops.

Founded in 1926 and housed in several different buildings since it first opened, the expanded museum opened its doors in the spring of 2003. The new building was designed by the Polshek Partnership, architects of the Rose Planetarium in New York City and the Clinton Library in Little Rock, AK. This bold, contemporary and fully accessible space encompasses four floors of galleries that house the museum’s permanent collection, as well as a dozen or so lively changing exhibitions that rotate through the museum each year. Visitor amenities include two highly acclaimed artist-designed restrooms, eleven hand-crafted gallery benches, an inviting Museum Shop, and Sam’s Café which is located in the museum’s 40’ high, sky-lit Atrium and event space, adjacent to the galleries. There are over 23,000 works of art in the museum’s permanent collection and some 18,000 of these are works on paper stored in the state-of-the-art Cunningham Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings and Photographs (open by appointment). Though it is probably best known for its 19th and 20th century European and American paintings and sculpture, the museum also has strong holdings in Asian, African, and Latin American art, as well as in classical antiquities. Highlights of the collection include works by Manet, Monet, Picasso, Pissarro, Copley, Close, Stella, Steiglitz, Elmer, Eakins and O’Keeffe. Each year some 3,000 area schoolchildren visit the museum and more than 7,000 people of all ages – college students, families, scholars, museum members, emerging artists, and teachers – participate in the museum’s diverse range of educational programs which includes teacher workshops, lectures, drawing classes, conservation workshops, exhibition openings, and story telling performances. Visitors to the museum’s Atrium will enjoy a stunning visual treat: RufinoTamayo’s monumental mural, Nature and the Artist: The Work of Art and the Observer. (43’ long and 9.5’ high). After a long-term loan to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA, the mural came “home” in March 2005 to its permanent location at SCMA, sixty years after its original commission by Smith.