27 2017 MUSEUMS CONCENTRATORS AND CAPSTONE PROJECTS Beryl Ford Finding Focus—A Conversation about “In Focus,” an E-Zine Lily Clark So You Think You Can Rob a Museum? Mythbusting Museum Security Ana Drinovan Color & Japanese Art: An Attempt at Deconstructing Museological Paradigms Olivia Feal What’s in a Blog? Laura Grant Perspectives on Museum Hack Dorie Klein The Right to Bear Paintbrushes: Making Activist Public Art Visible to Museums Through Mapping Saraphina Masters Interpretation for Empowerment: A Guide to SCMA Greek Vases Samantha Page Deaccessioning and the Smith College Museum of Art: An Entry Point to American Studies, Art History, and the Museums Concentration Johanna Renard Northampton Street Art Exhibition Hui Yan Making Connections in Musée Imaginaire MUSEUMS CONCENTRATION STUDENT PERSPECTIVE: BERYL FORD ‘17 THE SMITH COLLEGE MUSEUM OF ART HAS always represented a haven for my creative and intellectual growth as a student in the art history major and the Museums Concentra- tion, and as the Black Students’ Alliance arts and culture liaison. Throughout my undergraduate career, I worked closely with the museum’s staff in varying capacities: as a student educator leading tours my sophomore year, as the organizer and facilitator of the program “To Know Ourselves: Exploring the Work of Black Artists in SCMA’s Collection” in my junior year, and as an art history student collaboratively involved in the curation of the exhibition About Face: People, Animals, and Mythical Beings in Islamic Art during my senior year. While the museum itself possesses a breadth of research and educational resources, as well as a collection of great renown, it is the staff and museum administration that drew me into the museum’s galleries and encouraged my participation within its space. Consequently, it was at SCMA that I first started exploring and cultivating an understanding of the ideas of place, ownership and stakeholding from my perspective as a museum visitor. Having meaningful experiences with the collection, my peers and educators at SCMA truly transformed the way I approached my praxis as an individual pursuing a career in the arts and as an educator. I knew that I wanted others to feel a sense of place and ownership within the museum just as I did, so when I sought out internships at other institutions, I committed myself to taking up this responsibility. For example, during the summer of 2016, I interned in the education department of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. Under the supervision of Geraldine Provost Lyons ‘02, I was tasked with organizing enrichment activities for the summer interns as a means of cohort building. I also facilitated workshops for local educators and assisted Geri with observing docent tours. Each of these projects was underpinned by two goals: first, to emphasize that the museum is accessible to a vast range of visitors; and second, to emphasize the Portrait Gallery staff’s interest in sustaining relationships with its constituencies. My experiences at the National Portrait Gallery were particularly illuminating because they introduced me to the possibility of continuing my pursuit of museum education and bridging that passion with my interest in arts administration and public programming. I owe this realization of my passions and career goals not only to the staff I worked alongside at the Portrait Gallery, but also to the guidance I received during my time in the Museums Concentration. Having the opportunity to navigate a professional arts space and an academic arts space afforded me a certain degree of museum literacy that I could not have gained by solely learning about museums in the classroom.