Bates College

On June 12, with Reunion in full swing, Phyllis Graber Jensen, the college’s longtime director of photography and video, did something highly unusual.

She showed up at a Bates College event without any camera, save the one on her cell phone, and she did not make a single image.

That’s because the event was the opening of the Bates College Museum of Art's exhibition, “Phyllis Graber Jensen: Picture Stories,” which will be up through Sept. 19.

Curated by museum Director Carrie Cushman, this is a true retrospective of Graber Jensen’s work, spanning her time from student photographer to staff photographer at the Boston Herald and then her 31 years in Maine at Bates.

Speaking to the audience, Graber Jensen praised the “imagination and vision” of Cushman, who joined Bates in August 2025 and took on the retrospective as the first exhibit she would curate.

“It’s a gift and a privilege to have someone of such immense talents and kindness, someone who barely knew me and had just arrived on the scene, take such an interest in offering context and insight to the work I produced during the last 50-plus years of my life.“ Graber Jensen said. “That’s lots of ground to cover in a very short period of time. Yet she persevered, and here we are.”

Learn more about the exhibit in our Bates News story: https://brnw.ch/21x3AKj

(Phyllis Graber Jensen/David Ernst/Bates College and Rene Roy for Bates College)

Another remarkable year for Fulbright at Bates.

Elena Maker Castro (top), assistant professor of psychology, and Michel Droge (bottom), visiting assistant professor of art and visual culture, have both earned Fulbright fellowships for the 2026-2027 academic year. They join an outstanding cohort of 16 Bates alumni who recently received Fulbright Student international exchange awards for 2026–2027.

See our Bates News story to learn more about where they're headed and what projects they'll be embarking on.

🔗: https://brnw.ch/21x3yBV

(Theophil Syslo/Bates College and Carly Philpott '27 for Bates College)