Building a new collection
Not until 1920, though, under the leadership of Alfred Vance Churchill, the SCMA’s first director, did the museum develop a formal collecting policy.[4] Churchill’s “concentration plan” began to redirect the collection’s focus, emphasizing the acquisition of modern art, “defined as beginning with the French Revolution,” and looking heavily towards trends in Europe.[5] Jere Abbott’s succession of Churchill in 1932 coincided with larger shifts in cultural tastes across American art institutions, which had in part been suppressed until then, according to Sabine Eckmann.[6]
[1] “History,” Smith College Museum of Art, accessed November 29, 2015, http://www.smith.edu/artmuseum/Collections/History.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Springfield Republican, “The Smith College Paintings,” June 17, 1879.
[4] “History,” Smith College Museum of Art, accessed November 29, 2015, http://www.smith.edu/artmuseum/Collections/History.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Sabine Eckmann, “Exilic Vision: H.W. Janson and the Legacy of Modern Art at Washington University,” in Sabine Eckmann, H. W. Janson and the Legacy of Modern Art at Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis: Washington University Gallery of Art, 2002), 7.