Melissa Shook: Freedom to Create: at Stevenson Library at Bard College

Stevenson Library at Bard College is pleased to present Melissa Shook: Freedom to Create, curated by Fiona Laugharn, an independent curator and Bard College alumnus. The exhibition will be open from September 18 through December 19, 2025, with an opening reception on September 25, from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

“I have begun to realize how important freedom is for the person who desires to create in any way.”-  Melissa Shook (age 17), Bard College Application, 1956

Melissa Shook: Freedom to Create traces the celebrated photographer’s formative relationship with Bard College—where she studied from 1959 to 1961—through a recent, generous gift from her daughter, Krissy Shook. Letters exchanged with family and friends, graded essays, Bard newsletters, professor evaluations, and portraits of alumni collected over the years join a suite of ceramics and handmade artist books that span a life’s work devoted to daily observation and personal identity. Shook’s cameras are displayed alongside exhibition catalogues and postcards, artist interviews, and selected contact sheets and prints from her seminal Daily Self-Portraits 1972-1973 (1972/1973)  and Wellfleet (1973) series.

Guided by Shook’s Bard application essay insight that freedom is essential “to create in any way,” the exhibition illuminates self-discovery, the conditions that nurture creativity, and the liminal space of young adulthood. Bard emerges as both campus and catalyst: a place where lifelong friendships formed, identities took shape, and an English major who once noted she had no plans to teach evolved into a pioneering photographer and beloved UMass Boston educator—proof that creative paths belie prediction.

By pairing personal ephemera, marked-up contact sheets, and completed prints, Freedom to Create maps thought, process, and product onto the interconnected roles of student, artist, and teacher, inviting visitors to trace their own through-lines of becoming. This exhibition highlights the unintentionally seeded experimentation that fuels an artist’s growth. As you move through, consider not only where you are going, but also: What do I need to create?

The curator extends sincere gratitude to Tom Wolf, former professor at Bard; Krissy Shook, the artist's daughter; Miyako Yoshinaga, the dealer of Shook's work; Rachel Brown, the artist's close friend; and the Stevenson Library Exhibition Team for their help in bringing this exhibition to life.