Despite its sprawl and reputation, Smith College sometimes gets overshadowed by other nearby academic monoliths. (Harvard is still Harvard, after all.) Don’t let this keep you from considering a visit to the Smith College Museum of Art; SCMA’s permanent collection is more than twenty thousand pieces strong. Many of those are works on paper, which are housed in the Cunningham Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, a separate storage and study facility within the museum. Beyond that, SCMA has four floors of galleries, botanic gardens, and a spacious atrium with high ceilings that houses Rufino Tamayo’s 43-foot-long mural, Nature and the Artist. Even the bathrooms were designed by artists.
– (JM)
Smith College Museum of Art Information
- Public Transportation: Good (steps from PVTA buses 39, M40, R42, and B43 at Elm Street/Bedford Terrace)
- Handicapped Accessibility: Good
- Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 10 a.m.–4 p.m.; Sunday noon–4 p.m.; closed Monday. Second Friday of each month 10 a.m.–8 p.m. (4 p.m.–8p.m. free admission)
- Admission: Adults $5; Seniors (65+) $4; Students (13+) $3; Youth (6–12) $2. Free for members; Smith College students, faculty, and staff; Five College faculty; any college student with ID; and children five and under. Free to all on the second Friday of the month from 4 p.m.–8 p.m.
- Tour: Docent-led and self-guided tours are available to adult groups of twelve or more with a suggested donation of $2 per person
- Membership: Individual membership is $50 (Educator $35; Household $75). Benefits include free admission; a 10% discount at the Museum Shop and Café; E-notification of Museum programs; invitations to exhibition openings and programs; Members’ Extras: Art Insights–special programs and trips and Please Be Seated–reserved seating at select lectures; annual members’ double-discount days at the Museum Shop; and College & University Art Museums Reciprocal Program membership privileges at more than thirty museums nationwide.
