Jennifer Heuer, Associate Professor of History at University of Massachusetts Amherst, explores the portrayal of women as symbols in war and revolution in conjunction with the special exhibition Becoming a Woman in the Age of Enlightenment.

Professor Heuer is author of The Family and The Nation: Gender and Citizenship in Revolutionary France, 1789-1830. 

Directed by Benoît Jacquot. In French with English subtitles. 1:40 minutes - R 

In conjunction with the special exhibition Becoming a Woman in the Age of Enlightenment.

Adapted from the best selling feminist novel by Chantal Thomas, the film re-imagines three days at the Palace of Versailles leading up to the French Revolution. The story is told through the eyes of Marie Antoinette’s (fictional) servant and personal reader, Sidonie Laborde. As Sidonie’s attachment to the Queen deepens, Marie Antoinette’s (non-fictional) friendship with Duchess Gabrielle de Polignac intensifies. 

Artist Inas Halabi will lecture in conjunction with the exhibition of her work, Letters to Fritz and Paul (2016-8), at the Smith College Museum of Art.

This exhibition is supported by the Suzannah J. Fabing Programs Fund for the Smith College Museum of Art with additional support from The Sams Fund, Middle East Studies; the Lewis Global Studies Center; Film and Media Studies; the Museums Concentration; Department of Art; and the Lecture Committee. It is organized by Emma Chubb, Charlotte Feng Ford ’83 Curator of Contemporary Art.

Join Melissa Hyde for a close-up look at the images and themes of the special exhibition Becoming a Woman in the Age of Enlightenment. Dr. Hyde is Professor of Art History, Distinguished Teaching Scholar and University of Florida Research Foundation Professor. Her research and publications focus on gender and visual culture in 18th-century France. 

In conjunction with the special exhibition Becoming a Woman in the Age of Enlightenment, Melissa Hyde, Professor of Art History and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Florida, explores how women artists reached unprecedented success in 18th-century France. The work of several of these women including Adelaide Labille-Guiard, Anne Vallayer-Coster and Marie-Anne Fragonard is on view in the exhibition.

Directed by Amma Asante. 1:44 minutes. Rated PG. 

In conjunction with the special exhibition Becoming a Woman in the Age of Enlightenment. 

This British period drama is inspired by an 18^th-century portrait (below) of Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay (1761-1804) and her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray. The film imagines Belle’s young life in British society. Dido (Belle) was born into slavery in the British West Indies to an enslaved African woman, Maria Belle, and Captain Sir John Lindsay. Lindsay returned to the United Kingdom with his young daughter who was raised as a free gentlewoman by her great uncle, Lord Chief Justice William Murray. Murray is credited with advancing the end of official slavery in Britain.  

Join museum educator Gina Hall for an artful adventure fit for toddlers and their caregivers. We’ll explore a different theme each session, in the museum’s galleries and the Smith College campus. Each session offered twice, on a Thursday + Saturday of the same week from 10:15–11 am. 

In October, explore images of children in the special exhibition Becoming a Woman in the Age of Enlightenment: French Art from the Horvitz Collection, as well as in paintings and sculptures in SCMA's own collection. Plus, make your own Jumping Jack toy to take home!

Open to members + nonmembers |  SCMA members FREE | nonmembers pay only the museum admission fee. This program is underwritten by the Members of SCMA. JOIN today.

Registration for members opens on September 1 | Registration for nonmembers opens October 1. This program fills fast and space is limited. Registration required: scmamembers@smith.edu or 413.585.2777

Come partake in an informal conversation with artist Lesley Dill, Smith College MAT '75. Lesley Dill is the 2018 Smith College Print Workshop artist (October 17–19). Examples of her prints will be on display in the Cunningham Center. More information about SCMA's Dill acquisitions.

At the Smith College Print Workshop, Lesley Dill and master printmaker Maurice Sanchez will create new lithographs.  Harnish Printmaking Studio, Hillyer Hall. Visitors Welcome.

Join museum educator Gina Hall for an artful adventure fit for toddlers and their caregivers. We’ll explore a different theme each session, in the museum’s galleries and the Smith College campus. Each session offered twice, on a Thursday + Saturday of the same week from 10:15–11 am. 

In October, explore images of children in the special exhibition Becoming a Woman in the Age of Enlightenment: French Art from the Horvitz Collection, as well as in paintings and sculptures in SCMA's own collection. Plus, make your own Jumping Jack toy to take home!

Open to members + nonmembers |  SCMA members FREE | nonmembers pay only the museum admission fee. This program is underwritten by the Members of SCMA. JOIN today.

Registration for members opens on September 1 | Registration for nonmembers opens October 1. This program fills fast and space is limited. Registration required: scmamembers@smith.edu or 413.585.2777

Directed by Patrice Leconte. In French with English subtitles. 1:03 minutes. Rated R. 

Introduction by Hélène Visentin, Professor of French Studies, Smith College.

Set in 1783, the film follows a provincial engineer/aristocrat who heads to the Court of Louis XVI at Versailles to gain support for a local drainage project. The plot unfolds as he learns the manners of gaining favor and prestige through wit and patronage. Winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Ridicule was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.