Bowdoin College Museum of Art will host a discussion, “Museums as a Political Space: Classics, Color, and the Labeling of the Ancient World,” at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 11, at Sills Hall, Smith Auditorium in Brunswick. Can museums be apolitical? Over the past few years, debate has raged over whether museums can be a neutral space devoid of all ideology or agenda — and whether they should be. This talk addresses the role of the museum in the field of Classics and the political messages that such spaces have sent to viewers since antiquity. In addressing the modern idea of the museum space and its role in the community, this talk explores how curatorial decisions — the addition of digital interactive models, the use of polychromatic light and the relabeling of antiquities to include marginalized persons — can serve to reframe our understanding of the ancient world. By using new methods for (re)framing objects and revising the labels for them, museums can more directly address issues of colonialism, looting and the diversity of the ancient Mediterranean. The speaker will be Sarah E. Bond, associate professor of Classics at the University of Iowa, an affiliated scholar at the Digital Scholarship & Publishing Studio, and a regular contributor to hyperallergic.com. She specializes in GIS, late Roman law and the history of color. She thinks all museums are political. This presentation is free and open to the public. For more information, call 207-725-3275 or visit bowdoin.edu/art-museum. Pictured is the installation view of “In the Round: Ancient Art from All Sides.”