Recognizing the power of art to shape a community's understanding of itself and its neighbors, Proctor Academy's Visual Arts Department, under the leadership of Art Curator and Learning Specialist Molly Leith, continues to curate rotating exhibits of contemporary artists across campus. This spring, two exhibits drew Proctor students into conversation alongside peers, members of our campus professional community, and residents from Andover and the surrounding towns, offering the community an opportunity to slow down, look carefully at a work of art, and talk about their experiences as interested and curious viewers.
Alan Shulman: Zinkov Portraits
Brown Dining Commons Gallery
On display in the upstairs gallery of the Brown Dining Commons through May 31, the Zinkov Portraits represent more than three decades of work by painter Alan Shulman. Zinkov, Ukraine, was Shulman's family's ancestral home. Though he never lived there – his family emigrated in the first decade of the last century – in the early 1990s, Shulman opened a family heirloom: the Zinkover Memorial Book, a survivor-compiled volume of photographs, stories, and remembrances. Reading it, Shulman found himself drawn to the faces of the Zinkov residents who had remained, including members of his own family who did not survive the Nazi occupation. A small agricultural town of roughly 7,000 residents before World War II, about 3,000 of them Jewish, Zinkov was systematically erased by the Nazi Einsatzgruppen between 1941 and 1944. Shulman has since painted some eighty portraits of its ordinary residents: a tanner, a metal worker, a roving educator who traveled the region singing on holidays, and others.
During the winter trimester, Alan met with students in Proctor's College-Level interdisciplinary English and History seminar, Culture and Conflict, to discuss what Shulman calls the "hierarchy of hate" – the incremental process by which humans designate others as outside the community and how that process enables atrocities. Those questions reemerged when he returned to campus last week, this time for an Artist Discussion open to the public, and the room engaged with them thoughtfully, honoring each other's perspectives and taking the time the material deserved. Shulman does not offer the portraits as answers, but rather a form of storytelling. Each canvas reminds us that a tanner, a metal worker, an educator is a specific person worth remembering.
Brandon Cabral: Photographer from New Bedford, MA
Lovejoy Library
Also on display this spring in the Lovejoy Library is the film photography of Brandon Cabral, a visual storyteller based in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Cabral shoots exclusively on film, develops his own prints by hand in a darkroom he built himself, and captures the streets, neighborhoods, and people of his hometown. His black-and-white photographs honor the cultural identity of a working port city and the everyday moments that resist being forgotten. Like Shulman, Cabral is drawn to people who are not famous, in places that are not always celebrated.
The reception for Cabral's exhibit took an inventive format, experimenting with a new form of expression and multisensory engagement. The Lovejoy Library was transformed into an active gallery space, with students from Proctor's Art History class leading guided tours of the photographs, the Proctor House Band providing musical accompaniment, and student artist Ozzy '26 painting in real time in response to the music and surroundings.
What Art Invites Us to Do
At a moment increasingly shaped by AI-generated images and video, gathering around a work of art to discuss it with a fellow human remains important. Gathering around storytelling and art is one of the oldest and most enduring forms of community. When a Proctor Art History student walks a visitor through Cabral's photographs, or when a visiting artist finds himself in conversation with a student about art and architecture, bridges are built, and connections are formed. This work has long been at the heart of a Proctor education: to observe with curiosity, to think critically, and to engage honestly with the people around them – in our own community and beyond.
Thank you to Molly Leith for continuing to bring the work of remarkable contemporary artists to Proctor, to the Arts Department for their ongoing stewardship of the arts on campus, and to Alan Shulman, Brandon Cabral, all of the students who engaged with these exhibits, and to Andover-area residents who joined us this spring.
Zinkov Portraits and Brandon Cabral's photographs remain on display in the Brown Dining Commons and the Lovejoy Library, respectively, through the end of the academic year – including during Commencement Weekend – and we hope members of the Proctor and local communities will take the time to stop in. Please reach out to Molly Leith at leithmo@proctoracademy.org to schedule a visit.
Learn More About the Arts at Proctor
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