The Impact of the Smith Office for the Arts (SOFA)

When we elevate the arts, we elevate everyone. In its first year, the Smith Office for the Arts built partnerships and connections with faculty, staff, and students; created new communications platforms; and launched several programs to highlight the incredible work already happening across campus—putting new traditions in place and connecting the arts community in new ways.

A SmithArts Welcome

On October 21, 2023, Sarah Willie-LeBreton formally took office as Smith’s 12th president. As part of her inauguration weekend, the new Smith Office for the Arts (SOFA) connected and catalyzed a series of events with creativity and the arts at the core to celebrate the new President. We welcomed her to campus through performances, exhibitions, film screenings, a poetry reading, artist talks, pop-up art making activities and a special student performance showcase.

We were thrilled to share some of the amazing artistic work happening on campus on this special day, and look forward to many more opportunities to highlight the incredible impact that the arts have at Smith College. Thank you to all of our students, staff and faculty involved in facilitating these inspired events.

Here are a selection of photos from some of the arts events that happened as part of Inauguration, as well as a short highlight reel from our special student performance showcase, organized by SOFA, which featured over 100 student performers on one stage.

A student in the Smith Art Museum, staring intently at artwork on the right-hand wall
Sweet Honey in the Rock joined by Smith a cappella students, performing in the Campus Center
Students dancing in Mendenhall
Two attendees talking to each other and admiring political art in a gallery presentation
A group of attendees listen to a presentation being given in the library
An interactive chalkboard activity in the Smith art museum, asking visitors to answer the prompt, "What do you collect?"
A group of students on the stage in Mendenhall, clapping and smiling as Sarah Willie-LeBreton greets them

A New Tradition

On April 13, 2024, SOFA presented the first Smith Arts Day, a day-long celebration of the artistic and creative community at Smith, bringing the arts together—across disciplines and across campus. Students, friends, family, and community members gathered at over 40 events, performances, exhibitions, tours, open rehearsals, workshops, and more, exploring over a dozen campus venues through the arts. This special day also overlapped intentionally with Admitted Students Day, featuring the impact that the arts have at Smith and making visible the many resources we offer to students.

Check Out the Highlights

Art for Sale

In December 2023, SOFA hosted the first Student Art Sale, providing student makers with a platform to sell their work. With the Design Thinking Initiative and the Jill Ker Conway Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center, students were taught how to think about making and pricing work to sell and managing their sales. Community members were invited to the Campus Center to purchase work created by students, including prints, clothing, jewelry, and more, and the student maker community united around the opportunity to be visible amongst their peers. Over 35 student makers participated.

After another successful sale in the spring, this time featuring over 40 student makers, this event will now be held annually.

Some Other Highlights

SOFA has been hard at work creating and collaborating across campus. Here are a few additional highlights from the 2023–24 academic year.

  • Convened the SOFA Working Group of art department chairs
  • Designed SmithArts tote bags featuring artwork of Rose Metting ’12
  • Co-hosted ArtSalon at Smith College, a dynamic social evening of presentations by established and emerging artists in the Pioneer Valley
  • Co-sponsored Art Stockings: Dialogues on Art, Gender, and Cultural Theory, a visual artist speaking series, organized by Professor Alex Callender and the art department
  • Co-hosted Deborah Jack film screening and discussion, coinciding with the exhibition of her video at the Smith College Museum of Art, in collaboration with the film and media studies department
  • Co-hosted Sisters in Praxis, a two-day symposium gathering filmmakers of the LA Rebellion, members of the New Negress Film Society, as well as film and sexuality studies scholars to critically engage and showcase works created by Black women who are operating on the margins of industry-focused, mainstream routes for Black cinema
  • Worked with the Lazarus Center to sponsor two arts career treks, the first to New York City and the second to MASS MoCa and Williams College of Art
  • Rebuilt the SmithArts Box Office, which lived in the theatre department and advocated for hiring a professional Box Office Manager to provide sustained and elevated patron services for multiple departments