HANOVER, NH.- A new exhibition at the Hood Museum of Art, col·lec·ta·ne·a: the museum as hunter and gatherer, illuminates the broader social history of the Hood by exploring the diverse “authors” of its collection history. The exhibition will be on view in the Hood’s Gutman Gallery from May 21, 2005, through February 1, 2006, and will look at how the museum’s collection has been developed and (re)defined over time. Uniting traditional with contemporary and Western with non-Western art via pottery, sculpture, utilitarian objects, textiles, photographs, and prints, col·lec·ta·ne·a explores different collecting practices and ideologies that reflect the museum’s unique identity as a hunter and gatherer of material culture. Topics addressed in the exhibition include the role of private collectors in developing museum collections; the continuation of older cultural traditions in newer forms; the relation between museum collections and teaching at Dartmouth; changing perspectives of “art” versus “artifact”; the value of “hybridized” art versus “authentic” art; and the continued development of the Hood’s collections in new and interesting ways.

Guided by diverse academic modes of thinking from 1772 to the present, the Dartmouth collections now comprise an impressively diverse range of nearly 65,000 objects in terms of originality, provenance, historical sweep, geographic representation, and academic importance—a direct reflection of the evolution of the College’s academic perspective, curricular goals, and collecting ideologies.

Catherine Roberts, Curatorial Intern and co-curator of this exhibition, notes, “The nature of the collector’s vision and its impact upon the museum’s history is intriguing and significant in understanding the museum. Many of the collections at Dartmouth have been generously donated by individual collectors. Consequently, the nature of the museum’s collections can be greatly influenced by a collector’s choices, taste, and “vision.” In the museum setting, such private collections are given new life and meaning, especially as the objects in the collection are reexamined, reinterpreted, and re-presented—no longer from a personal perspective but within diverse academic contexts, discourses, and disciplines.”

Twentieth Anniversary of the Hood Museum of Art
The Hood Museum of Art marks its twentieth anniversary in 2005 with a yearlong series of exciting exhibitions and programs that examine the museum’s collections from their inception to the museum’s vision for their future. The year began with a critical look at how the permanent collections are interpreted and used by Dartmouth faculty and an exhibition of the museum’s recent acquisitions in new media. Currently, the museum is featuring Marks of Distinction: Two Hundred Years of American Drawings and Watercolors from the Hood Museum of Art. The anniversary celebration will end with a major installation by internationally renowned American artist Fred Wilson.