Colby Islands Convening

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Through its Lunder Institute for American Art, the Colby College Museum of Art is holding a two-day convening in Waterville and Allen Island. Artists and curators came to Maine to inform the conceptual development of a future Colby Museum exhibition in its early phase. The Islands Project centers the creative production of artists with cultural heritage ties to Cuba, Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. The intertwined histories of occupation and colonization by both Spain and the United States link these islands, inflecting the cultural heritages of their constituencies. By situating into dialogue works by artists tied to these islands against the contextual grain of U.S. imperialism, the Islands Project aims to fundamentally reframe key understandings of American art. More importantly, the project seeks to generate new avenues of meaning and opportunities for solidarity across constituencies currently living with these shared historical legacies.

The Lunder Institute incubates innovative research and creative practice for projects in their early stages through fellowships and convening programs, redefining how American art is made, taught, studied, and shared.

The cohort of Lunder Institute Project Fellows for Summer 2022 include Micki Davis, Sara Jimenez, Jerome Reyes, Marina Reyes Franco, Edra Soto, and Marina Tyquiengco. They are joined by Richard Blanco, a former Lunder Institute Fellow, now on the Colby Museum’s Board of Governors, as well as Colby Museum staff members and students who have also contributed to the project. The Islands Project is organized by Jessamine Batario, Linde Family Foundation Curator of Academic Engagement.
IMAGE (Clockwise, from top right): Micki Davis, Marina Tyquiengco, Jerome Reyes, Edra Soto, Sara Jimenez, and Marina Reyes Franco.