Jane McAuliffe (b.1944) (President, 2008-2013)
Irene Hecht, 2016
Oil on canvas, 86.36 x 96.52 cm
2016.6.104

A scholar of the Islamic world, Jane McAuliffe’s brief tenure was focused on expanding Bryn Mawr’s globalism. During her presidency, she tripled the enrollment of international students, instituted an International Studies major, and helped establish a Tri-College Environmental Studies minor. The popular 360° Program was also inaugurated under her leadership.

Artist Irene Hecht paints McAuliffe as if standing on the campus lawn in front of Pembroke Arch. She wears University of Toronto doctoral robes and smiles at the viewer, her hands clasped together. Although very few of the College’s presidential portraits were painted from life, McAuliffe’s has a stronger photographic quality than the others; the outdoor staging, as well as the frozen pose and smile seem to borrow from the conventions of snapshot photography. The substitution of the campus landscape for material objects, such as books to connote scholarship, is an unorthodox artistic choice within this genre. But, painting McAuliffe into the heart of the campus serves the symbolic purpose of centralizing her legacy for the College.