Two Significant Collections Gifted to the Bowdoin College Museum of Art

The Bowdoin College Museum of Art today announced its receipt of two major collections of artworks that will significantly expand its holdings: nearly 350 works from the estate of Marion Boulton “Kippy” Stroud (1939 – 2015), founder of the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia and the Acadia Summer Arts Program (ASAP) on Maine’s Mount Desert Island, known as “Kamp Kippy”; and an archive of visual art by the artist, scholar, and curator Walter Pach (1883 – 1958), numbering approximately 1,200 works from the gallerist and scholar Francis M. Naumann and his wife Marie T. Keller. Totaling over 1,500 objects, the Stroud and Pach Collections will greatly enhance the BCMA’s encyclopedic collection with additions across media, including highlights such as Pach’s painted portraits of Frida Kahlo and Rufino Tamayo, and works by contemporary artists Dawoud Bey, Willie Cole, Cai Guo-Qiang, Roni Horn, Abelardo Morell, Carrie Mae Weems, and William Wegman, among others.

Advancing the Museum’s collection goals, a significant portion of works included in the Pach and Stroud gifts are by artists or of historic periods and geographic regions that are not represented in current holdings. Accessioning these objects furthers the Museum’s commitment to recognizing Maine as a site of excellence in the arts, honoring Kippy Stroud’s history of nurturing creative communities in the state and Pach’s relationship with Bowdoin College, from which his son, Raymond, graduated in 1936 and where he himself taught the same year. Upon receipt, the Museum will develop an exhibition dedicated to the legacy of the ASAP program and will make the Walter Pach Collection available to scholars, both on campus and beyond.

“We are thrilled to welcome the collections of Kippy Stroud and Walter Pach to the Museum,” said BCMA co-director Anne Goodyear. “These new contributions to our holdings reflect the remarkable vision of two individuals who have had a transformative impact on how art has been experienced, practiced, and interpreted from the early twentieth century to the present. The addition of landmark works by a significant range of modern and contemporary masters will allow us to tell new stories that both enliven our interpretation of our historic collections and enhance our ability to present the art of the recent past.”