A Legacy in Art and Global Outreach: Carol T. Christ Asian Art Gallery Opens at SCMA

Shortly after making her first trip to Asia in 2004 as Smith’s 10th president, Carol Christ had what she calls “a vivid and moving experience” of the college’s connections to Asia and the arts.

Led by Sohl Lee ’06, the Korean American Students of Smith had launched a fundraising drive to help purchase a work by a Korean-American artist for the Smith College Museum of Art (SCMA).

The result was “Movement” 2008, a wall-sized installation by Yong Soon Min, a contemporary artist born in South Korea who lives and works in Los Angeles. Her piece was purchased for the SCMA through the initiative of the student group and the Korean Arts Foundation with the gifts of alumnae and other donors.

Next week, Lee—now assistant professor of contemporary art at Stony Brook University—will join President Kathleen McCartney and former presidents Jill Ker Conway and Mary Maples Dunn in dedicating a new gallery at SCMA in honor of Christ’s love for art and her success at strengthening Smith’s ties to Asia.

The Carol T. Christ Asian Art Gallery opens Thursday, Oct. 15, with a celebration for the campus community from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the museum atrium. The new gallery and all others will be open until 7 p.m. (A video about the gallery dedication can be seen online).

The Asian art gallery “brings together two parts of the college’s history and identity that I learned to treasure in my years as president—internationalism and the particular importance given to the study of art,” Christ wrote in an essay for the gallery opening.

College leaders say Christ helped Smith advance in both of those areas during her time as president from 2002 to 2013. During her tenure, Smith extended its reach in Asia, established a museums concentration, and saw a rise in the percentage of international students enrolled from less than 5 percent to more than 15 percent of the class.

Board of Trustees Chair Elizabeth Mugar Eveillard ’69 said naming the new gallery for Christ is a way to acknowledge her influence on the arts and global outreach at Smith.

“Her love of art, her recognition of the influence of Smith in the world, and her efforts to enlarge our reputation and contacts in Asia are wonderfully honored in this remarkable new space,” Eveillard said.

The 1,250-square-foot gallery—funded by a leadership gift from Peggy Block Danziger ’62—provides dedicated space for SCMA’s evolving collection of Asian art. Inaugural exhibitions will focus on contemporary photography. The first, on view through January 31, is titled “Dislocation/Urban Experience: Contemporary Photographs from East Asia.”

Exhibitions in the new gallery will be organized by Yao Wu, the museum’s first Jane Chace Carroll ’53 Curator of Asian Art. Exhibitions and programs in the new space are supported in part by the Nolen Endowed Fund for Asian Art Initiatives given by Eliot Chase Nolen ’54.

Jessica Nicoll, director and chief curator at SCMA, called the new Christ gallery “the fulfillment of a vision” and a valuable resource for using the museum’s collection to support Smith’s increasingly global curriculum.

Lee, who will celebrate her 10^th reunion in May, said the new gallery adds to alumnae pride about the vital role that art plays in a Smith education.

The new Christ gallery is also “a powerful reminder of the Smith community’s constant movement toward making the museum space contingent on, and open to, multiple traditions, imaginations and identities,” Lee said.

Christ, who spent many hours at the museum with her late husband, Paul Alpers, said having her name attached to the new Asian art gallery is a rare honor—a sign, she writes in her essay, “of the increasing turn to Asia I sought to foster as president.”

A new gallery opening next week at the Smith College Museum of Art is named for the college's 10th president, Carol T. Christ.