Upon entering the Sacerdote Gallery at the Smith College Museum of Art (SCMA), a conveyor belt hummed at the room’s center. It rotated artwork that visitors were not only allowed but invited to touch. Around it, day clocks, reading nooks, handwritten text, drawings of dream worlds, postcards and wheelchairs fill the space. The gallery felt less like a traditional museum, instead creating an environment of an entirely different collective, imaginative reality.
Finnegan Shannon’s, “Don’t mind if I do”, which opened on Jan. 30, is described by the artist as their “access fantasy.” It imagines a world in which the museum becomes a place for community and care for everyone, particularly visitors who experience access barriers within and beyond the museum.
The 25-foot conveyor belt displays artworks of eight artists. It’s a reversal of two familiar museum rules: do not touch the art, and move yourself around to see it. In “Don’t mind if I do”, the art moves while the visitor is encouraged to be still and let the art come to them.
Beyond the conveyor belt, books from Shannon’s personal collection were available for visitors to read in various corners full of comfortable seating. A mural created in collaboration with artist Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo stretched along the walls, welcoming intimacy with and interdependence toward one another.
Unlike the traditional museum experience, “Don’t mind if I do”, made its solidarity with disability culture explicit. According to SCMA’s website, the exhibition “welcomes informality, messiness, and unsettling the hierarchy of objects.” Access is incorporated into the exhibition’s design from the very beginning. Zines and audio descriptions are available both in the gallery and online, offering further descriptions about the pieces on the conveyor belt.
The Curator of Contemporary Art, Emma Chubb, explained how the exhibition came to the museum. Lauren Leving, the exhibition’s curator, first reached out to Chubb and Director & Chief Curator Jessica Nicoll in October 2023. While there wasn’t room for a new exhibition at the time due to geothermal construction at SCMA, an opportunity for a spring 2026 installation arose and Chubb reconnected with Leving to work on bringing the project to SCMA.
Part of Chubb’s role involved balancing both the SCMA curators and the artist’s visions, a process which required ongoing dialogue.
“We have had a really lovely back and forth throughout, with conversations and shared decision making about layout, design, additional artworks, seating selections, staff and visitor engagement, and so much more,” Chubb said.
As a teaching museum, SCMA approaches each of its exhibitions as educational opportunities. Student Museum Educators (SMEs), Smith students who facilitate guided activities for local Pre-K through 12th grade schools, considered the impact of “Don’t mind if I do” on younger audiences. SME Maeve Reynolds ’29 expressed excitement about introducing students to the show.
“I think all the ways we can go about [“Don’t mind if I do”] is going to be really interesting,” said Reynolds. “I think kids are going to have a field day with it.”
The exhibition also extends beyond the central gallery. In collaboration with the Sophia Smith Collection at Neilson Library, a smaller gallery features nine original drawings created during workshops led by architect and activist Phyllis Birky in the 1970s. Participants imagined and drew their own fantasy environments. Though whimsical in nature, these drawings consider worlds of freedom and access.
Within this section three wheelchairs of different sizes, accompanied with colorful cushions, are available for visitors to use as part of a recent work by Shannon called “Imagine: wheelchairs for use on the dance floor.”
In another section of the gallery, postcards are displayed for writing and mailing. These were created in collaboration with Shannon by Smith students in two student organizations, Chronic Baddies and (Dis)Organizing.
According to Chubb, Shannon’s exhibition challenges the conventional museum experience in both straightforward and complex ways.
“The simplicity is in the reversal of movement; here, the art moves while the human is invited to be still and to touch,” said Chubb. “The profundity is in the layers of institutionalized practices that, behind the scenes, need to be peeled back and reconfigured in order to transform this seemingly simple idea into a reality.”
“Don’t mind if I do” also encouraged SCMA staff to become more flexible and open, reflecting structural changes that make the exhibition especially unique.
“There are myriad ways to experience the artworks and the exhibition,” said Chubb. “I hope that visitors to the show are energized by, and find a sense of inspiration and welcome in, Fin’s transformation of the museum going experience.”
On Mar. 26, SCMA will host its 2026 Miller Lecture in Art, “Learning How to Desire” with Finnegan Shannon, followed by a conversation with curator Lauren Leving. “Don’t mind if I do” remains on view through June 28. The Smith College Museum of Art is free and open to all Tuesday through Sunday, 11:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
