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Campus + Community: Women in Art
April 2, 2022, 10:00 AM
An event every week that begins at 10:00 AM on Monday and Saturday, repeating until April 24, 2022
Shown on Saturday mornings in April, Campus + Community: Women in Art comprises three documentary features and one collection of shorts, all about unsung women making innovative art. Kris Bergquist, Mirken Curator of Education and Engagement at the Colby College Museum of Art will introduce all the screenings. Admission is free, thanks to generous support from the Colby Museum of Art.
Maya Lin: A Strong, Clear Vision
Maya Lin: A Strong, Clear Vision is an Academy Award-winning documentary. It tells the story of the designing and creation of the Vietnam War Memorial, focusing on the controversy that arose when it was announced that the winning design was submitted by a young Chinese-American woman, Maya Lin. Since completion, The Vietnam War Memorial has become one of the most famous memorials in the US because of its spiritual and emotional impact.
Twenty-seven years after the film was released, Maya Lin continues her work, creating sculptures, parks, monuments, and architectural projects around the world. The Colby College Museum of Art has multiple works by the artist in its permanent collection and she was the Lunder Institute for American Art's Senior Fellow during the 2020-2021 academic year. Much of her focus for that year was on what Lin has described as her "last memorial." That project, What is Missing?, is a multi-sited and multimedia project devoted to the global biodiversity crisis related to habitat loss.
Saturday, April 2 at 10:00AM
(Not Rated, 105 min., 1994)
Aggie
Aggie is a documentary that explores the nexus of art, race, and justice through the story of art collector and philanthropist, Agnew “Aggie” Gund. The film opens with Aggie selling Roy Lichtenstein’s Masterpiece for $165 million to start the Art for Justice Fund. This fund makes direct grants to artists and advocates focused on safely reducing the prison population, promoting justice reinvestment and creating art that changes the narrative around mass incarceration. In June 2021, the artist Julie Mehretu announced her donation of a major painting, Dissident Score, to support the Art for Justice Fund, joining a list of artists who have done the same. The Colby College Museum of Art has a work by Julie Mehretu currently on view in A Poetics of Atmosphere: Lorna Simpson’s Cloudscape and Other Works from the Collection.
Saturday, April 9 at 10:00AM
(Not Rated. 92 min., 2020)
Women In Art: Documentary Shorts
A Create-It Kit inspired by the work of Carmen Herrera will be distributed at this program, and also will be available at the museum for the remainder of the month (while supplies last). The kits include all the materials needed to create art in your own living spaces.
Three documentaries will be shown that feature female artists. All of the artists have works in the Colby College Museum of Art’s permanent collection.
The 100 Years Show
(2017, 30 min.) tells the story of Carmen Herrera, who sold her first painting at age 89, and is now widely accepted as one of the leading postwar abstract painters. Untitled by Carmen Herrera is currently on view at the Colby College Museum of Art.
Betye Saar: Taking Care of Business
(2020, 8 min.) is a short that takes place in the artist’s Los Angeles studio, as she speaks about collecting objects, African American history, art as a weapon, and making people think.
Miss Alma Thomas: A Life in Color
(2021, 20 min). This is the first documentary film that explores Thomas’ incredible life through the lens of curators, art specialists, scholars, and her family, and features award-winning actress Alfre Woodard as the voice of Alma Thomas. Colby College Museum of Art’s work by Alma Thomas, Red Tree in High Winter, is currently part of a multi-city traveling exhibition, Alma W. Thomas: Everything is Beautiful.
Saturday, April 16 at 10:00AM
(Not Rated. 53 min., 2017 – 2021)
The Kingmaker
The Kingmaker, written and directed by Lauren Greenfield, is a documentary about Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines—a powerful female leader whose questionable sense of reality divided a nation. Lauren Greenfield is an award-winning photographer and documentary filmmaker who is known for her critical explorations of youth culture, consumerism, and the lives of women and girls. Her photography is currently on view in the Colby College Museum of Art’s exhibition, Act of Sight: The Tsiaras Family Photography Collection.
Saturday, April 23 at 10:00AM
(R, 101 min., 2019)