Within Our Walls

The Museum at Pomona College

The human tendency to see least clearly what is under one's nose is as widely shared as it is paradoxical. For a small academic museum and gallery, especially one located near an art-rich metropolitan center, it is an ongoing challenge to assure that the works of art it contains are known to the public. This has been a particularly vexing problem for the Montgomery Gallery, which has never had sufficient space to accommodate the temporary exhibitions required by curriculum and, at the same time, to give the permanent collections their due. Now, thanks to a major interior renovation, this imbalance has been addressed by means of exhibition spaces redesigned to reflect and enhance the Gallery's role as a collecting museum that preserves, exhibits, and interprets the works of art in its keeping, while also serving as a venue for temporary exhibitions. This comprehensive survey of Pomona's permanent collection was organized by Steve Comba and Marjorie Harth, assisted by guest curators Bruce Coats and Sheryl Miller and offered interpretive essays on key objects by members of the Pomona community. The exhibition celebrated the treasures within our walls and the new opportunities made available to us for bringing them to public view. The extent, depth, and quality of the collections as seen here may have come as revelation, even to our regular visitors, and our electronic database ensures the widest possible public access.