Restroom Works of Art

The Smith College Museum of Art (SCMA) in Northampton, Massachusetts includes two very unique works of art in their permanent collection. They are unique not just because they can be found inside the museum bathrooms. They are the bathrooms. 

All the fixtures in these all-gender restrooms—from the sinks to the tiles to the toilets—are artist-designed by two Smith College alums.

One restroom work of art titled Catching the Drift was designed by artist Ellen Driscoll. It evokes the feeling of being inside a nautical cyanotype with blue and white murals and a rich blue-tiled floor. There’s even more cobalt-hued artwork painted inside the toilet bowls and sinks. The glass panels embedded into the walls were fabricated by the same German firm that created the mosaics in New York’s Grand Central Station. 

The highlight of the other restroom, titled Liquid Origins, Fluid Dreams, is all the tilework sporting detailed black-and-white illustrations that splash onto the toilets and urinals. The whimsical and somewhat dizzying designs by Sandy Skoglund also includes a checkered floor and sinks illustrated with thick drips. References to fantastical figures from Egyptian mythology and other folkloric traditions are sprinkled throughout.

Both artists were commissioned to design the facilities during a 1999-2003 museum renovation. The artists created the pieces at the Arts/Industry program at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (yes, that Kohler, of plumbing fixture fame).