Hood Quarterly, spring 2025
When a work of art enters a teaching collection such as the Hood Museum's, it has an important role beyond the gallery walls. On average, museums have approximately 1 percent of their collection on view at any given time in their public gallery spaces. For many museums, this can mean that an artist's work might sit unseen in storage for years (even decades). However, at the Hood Museum, these works have a second life in our study galleries. In honor of the Hood Museum's 40th anniversary, we asked some artists with work in our collection for their point of view: What does it mean to you to know that your work is in a teaching collection?
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JOEL SHAPIRO
"I am delighted that my sculpture has been and remains an integral part of the Dartmouth campus since it was first installed in the Bedford Courtyard outside the Hood Museum in 1990. That it continues to spark dialogue and critical engagement throughout the Dartmouth community, one so clearly dedicated to the place of art in our culture, is deeply meaningful and a profound pleasure. What could be better?!?"
Shapiro's outdoor sculpture Untitled (Hood Museum of Art) has been used in over twenty different Dartmouth classes spanning from Studio Art to Geography.
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DANIEL HEYMAN '85
"A primary reason I make art is to have a conversation with other artists through their work and my own. Art is a continuous non- verbal conversation that takes place over time and between people who don't necessarily know each other or even have the same cultural references. The Hood Museum provides a place for that conversation to happen, and it is especially important for me as an alum because that conversation started only feet away from where the museum now stands. It thrills me that new students might find something in my work that they would like to respond to, and I hope they create works in their own practices that continue that conversation and pass it forward."
Heyman's work has appeared in courses ranging from Environmental Studies, French, Theatre, English, Studio Art, Russian, and History to Psychology, in addition to two student-curated exhibitions as a part of the Hood Museum's A Space for Dialogue intern program.
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SANA MUSASAMA
"As an artist, I want my work to live beyond me. I want my stories, my gender, my class and race never to be separated from my work. Museums are the homes of major art collections throughout the world. That is where my work, I feel, will be remembered and safe. However, a teaching collection is an added delight for me because the work will remain active via rigorous research or pure visual delight. The work will be seen and spoken about while resting until it's exhibited again. It's a perfect rotation from idea, to creation, to finding a home and resting place where it is discussed with populations of thinkers, creators, and the like."
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CARA ROMERO
"Since youth, I always wanted to illuminate contemporary Native American life in a way I did not experience in the classroom. Art and photography opened up a world of new possibilities of ways to communicate cross culturally, but at the time, I thought it excluded me and my work from the classroom. Twenty- five years later, for the work to be part of a teaching collection at the Hood Museum—it is one of the most important accomplishments of my life and brings me full circle to that young person who so desperately wanted understanding."
Romero's photographs have been pulled for more than fifty Dartmouth classes from Studio Art, Native American Studies, Anthropology, Geography, Art History, Writing, Gender Studies, Public Policy, and Archeology to Latino Studies.
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SIN-YING HO
"Knowing that my work is part of the Hood Museum's teaching collection is deeply meaningful to me. It's an honor to contribute to the education of students, sparking curiosity, dialogue, and deeper understanding through art. The thought of my work playing a role in shaping perspectives and encouraging critical thinking during such formative years is profoundly gratifying. I hope museum visitors, especially students, engage with my work in ways that challenge their assumptions, inspire empathy, and foster a connection to the themes I explore— such as the interplay of past and present, Eastern and Western cultures, and globalization. I hope these themes lead to a better understanding, acceptance, and embrace of cultural differences. I also hope the audience learns how ceramics, as an art form, speaks to our shared humanity— reflecting history, culture, and the human experience. If I was involved in the acquisition process, it was because I believed in the museum's mission to make art a catalyst for learning and felt it was the perfect home for my work to reach and influence a broader, more thoughtful audience."
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LARISSA BATES
"There are several themes at the heart of my work that I hope will generate conversations among viewers and students. For example, what does it mean to be bicultural when you have been removed from or lost access to one of those cultures? In my own life, this involves reconciling how the worldview of a family steeped in the traditions of Western individualism and humanist secularism differs from the mystical Catholic collectivism of my mother's Costa Rican family. I also want visitors to explore what is held within language and how we belong to divergent belief constructs within our closest relationships. What are the legacies of multinational neocolonialism being lived out today in Costa Rica and how does my own family legacy shape this? Because the Hood Museum is so active in fostering dialogue, it asks a diverse community of students from all different fields to use art to reflect on the complexity of their lived cultural geopolitical moment. The democratic ethos of the Hood Museum is embodied in the SALAD program, bringing art into the dormitories of the students, where it can become part of their daily lives and offers the chance to intimately know a piece over time. I wanted my work to be a part of the Hood Museum's collection for its deep commitment to being an active teaching museum. It is particularly moving to me to have my work included in such a renowned and dynamic collection very near where I grew up in central Vermont. I would have gained so much from the Hood Museum's programming and dialogue while I was growing up."
Bates's work is utilized by Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine in addition to multiple undergraduate departments from Geography to General College Courses. It is also featured in the Hood Museum's SALAD collection—Student Art Lending at Dartmouth offers current undergraduates and graduate students the opportunity to borrow and live with museum artworks for the academic year.
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DARRYL DEANGELO TERRELL
"For me, being part of a teaching collection means that my work will continue to be spoken about for generations to come. It contributes to a legacy that many Black artists unfortunately don't have the privilege of achieving, and that is something I hold very dear to my heart. It's an honor I celebrate fully. I hope this inclusion means that the next generation of artists, writers, and thinkers will consider my work as part of their scholarship, writing, and critical engagement—especially when exploring subjects like Blackness, feminist thought, performative gestures, and the body. The Hood Museum was the first institution to collect my work, and for it to have acquired a total of eleven pieces leaves me speechless. Knowing that students are engaging with my work, questioning the world around them—particularly in relation to ideas of otherness—is incredibly meaningful. It's humbling and exciting to think about the role my work might play in their education. I'd love to one day hear from a Dartmouth student who has encountered my work in the museum and found that it changed their perspective, or even just the way they view the world."
Darryl Deangelo Terrell's work is regularly utilized by Dartmouth's Dickey Center: Global Health Fellows, Studio Art, Writing, Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies, Art History, and Theatre Departments.
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BAHAR BEHBAHANI
"I see the gardens of the Southwest Asia region as living archives—holding the wisdom of ancient water management and ecological practices often erased by Western narratives. Shaped by a decade of research, my painting now resides in the Hood Museum's collection, sparking conversations across fields like geography, geopolitics, and environmental studies. Sitting in my Brooklyn studio, I feel a sense of hope knowing students are engaging with the work, using their critical minds to help shape a more just and thoughtful future."