important to teach them about a part of the world that has enjoyed millennia of human civilization and a part of the world where more than half of the world’s population resides. And as a person of color, I also understand the influence I may have for students of color, especially those who aspire to be academics or curators but have a hard time finding role models. To make myself available for them is a simple but important step toward encouraging and inspiring the next generation. HKdV: There are three work-study students who assist us in the Cunningham Center and obviously many more who come to the classes that are being taught there. I love it when they return with questions or want to see other works from the collection. When they realize we are here for them and when they get a grasp of how amazing it is that they can work with such a great collection of art, they tend to return for more. The curatorial department is moving to an increas- ingly collaborative way of working. What does that look like? And what opportunities does that create? AG: One of the best things about the expansion of the EMMA CHUBB: FIRST-YEAR REFLECTIONS Creating community through contemporary art defined my first year at Smith. After all, museums are, or should be, places for coming together around art and ideas. This year, I got to know so many in Smith’s orbit: the intrepid travelers who toured Skulptur Projekte Muenster, Documenta and the Venice Biennale with Jessica Nicoll and me; the alumnae who attended the wonderful celebration in November 2017 at The Studio Museum in Harlem; the artists who welcomed me into their studios in Chicago, Cambridge, New York, Paris, Rabat, Tunis, Tetouan and Northampton; the colleagues across campus and the Five Colleges who invited me into their offices, classrooms and seminars; and of course the students who not only shared their research but raised provocative and urgent questions about what’s on our walls and why. In the first round of purchases I facilitated for SCMA’s collection—works by Yto Barrada, Hu’o’ng Ngô, Younès Rahmoun, Alma Thomas and Marie Watt—I hope to have strengthened the museum’s ability to show the conceptual and formal complexity of contemporary art. I am proud that all of these works are now on view, or will be in the next two years, so that they can quickly be integrated into teaching, programs and tours. Much of what is essential to our work at SCMA is not visible to visitors. Three behind-the-scenes seminars were highlights for me because they created occasions for learning and debate. In the winter, I taught a six-week seminar on decolonial theory for staff from SCMA and the Botanic Garden. In the spring, I did an independent study on global contemporary art with a Smith student majoring in art history and I co-led with Professors Alex Keller and Frazer Ward a two-day seminar called Excavating the Image: Andrea Fraser’s Little Frank and His Carp (2001). The latter was in collaboration with the Kahn Liberal Arts Institute and this year’s participants included faculty and staff from all of the Five Colleges. I’m excited to expand the reach and scope of these conversations in the coming years. 11