b'Museum StudiesCourseBlack Refractions: The Art and Politics ofMaking a Museumwas a two-week interterm course that centered on SCMAs spring 2020 exhibition and The Studio Museumin Harlem in order to examine howsocial and political movements shape artmuseums. Nineteen Smith studentsfrom a wide range of majors and all classyears enrolled in the course. In additionto learning and practicing visual analysisand participating in class discussions,they met with curators from The Studioartist Lorraine OGrady (above), whose Art Is . . . (1983)Museum, the Mount Holyoke Collegeis represented by four photographs in SCMAs col- Art Museum, the Amistad Center andlection, spoke with Dr. Stephanie Sparling Williams,the Wadsworth Atheneum. In theirMount Holyoke College Art Museum associate curatorcollaborative final projects, they conductedand the author of a forthcoming monograph onoriginal research on artworks in BlackOGrady. Another featured program was University of Massachusetts Ph.D. candidate Kiara Hills lecture onRefractions and presented proposals forthe role of women in the Black Arts Movement. Simi- a podcast interview with the artist, anlarly, the program Art in Focus invited staff, studentsexhibition or an acquisition in front of their and faculty from Smith and UMass Amherst to selectassigned artwork. In addition, severala single work in the exhibition for a series of intimatestudents indicated an interest in pursuing and engaging evening conversations in the galleries. further work in museums.Major support for Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem was provided by Art Bridges. Sponsorship for the national tour provided in part by PURE. Support for the accompanyingpublication was provided by Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund.Black Refractions at SCMA was made possible by the support of the Charlotte Frank Rabb, class of 1935, Fund; the Louise Walker Blaney, class of 1939, Fund for Exhibitions; the Carlyn Steiner 67 and George Steiner Endowed Fund, in honor of Joan Smith Koch; and the Suzannah J. Fabing Programs Fund for the Smith College Museum of Art. SCMA would also like to acknowledge the Greater Northampton Chamber of Com-merce and the Hampshire County Regional Tourism Council for generous in-kind support of this exhibition.left, bottom:Whitley Hadley, associate director of multicultural affairs,Smith College, (on the left), leading the first in a series of Art in Focus conversations related to Black Refractions;right, bottom:Students studying works from the SCMA collection in the Cunningham Study Center31'