Lauren Greenfield at Smith

I appreciate the work of Lauren Greenfield. Thin and Girl Culture will be on display at the Smith Art Museum, Northampton, MA, USA until April 26.

From Lauren Greenfield's Thin

I have a problem with the Smith College Art Museum. I know that I should support the Museum because they have my pictures in their collection, but I can’t. They are one of the few college museums in the country that charge admission to the general public, including students outside of the Five College network. I know the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis is about to close its doors and it should be time to rally around sustaining our college art collections. In spite of what the media says, I think that Brandeis has had the Rose on the chopping block for awhile. In 2007, they auctioned off rare Tibetan art and artifacts along with their Nicholas Roerich holdings. I love Roerich’s paintings so I took it personally.

Maitreya by Nicholas Roerich, 1925/6

I’m partial to this painting because I’ve photographed on this spot. It’s on the way to the Lhasa airport.

OK, back to Smith Art Museum. Free admission is available if you have a Western Mass. library card and you pick-up the free pass at the nearby Forbes Library. They also have passes to Mass MoCA.

I’m not trashing Smith College. They currently have a great exhibit on display at the Kahn Center in the Nielson Library featuring the photographs of Sandra Matthews, Chester Michalik and Stan Sherer. They also have a couple of nice gallery spaces in their Art Department. Art has been the second most popular major at Smith for several years. So Smith is OK, art elitism is a drag.