American Spectrum at Smith College Museum of Art

American Spectrum is an exhibition of American art from the permanent collection of the Smith College Museum of Art. Featured works range in date from the late eighteenth century to the present, including portraits, landscapes, genre scenes, still lifes, abstracts and more. The paintings and sculptures in this exhibition provide a rich teaching resource. They speak about history, sociology, industry and technology, progress and identity. You can use these works of art as primary sources of information in your teaching. The themes introduced here are presented in depth during our teacher workshops in the fall of 1999 and discussed in docent-led tours of the exhibition.

Themes

There are many ways to look at an exhibition as broad in scope as American Spectrum. We have selected four themes through which you can examine the works of art in this exhibition. Each theme site includes several images of related works of art in the exhibition and information about the artist and the artwork. The themes we have chosen are:

For Elementary School teachers:

Then and Now

For Middle/High School teachers:

The museum also offers guided tours of the exhibition.