Bryn Mawr College will unveil the official portrait of its ninth president, Kim Cassidy, at 5:15 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, during the opening reception for Owls Fest.

The portrait, painted by artist Sharon Sprung, will hang in the Great Hall in Old Library alongside portraits of six other Bryn Mawr presidents, according to the college. Sprung also painted Michelle Obama's official White House portrait, unveiled in September 2022.

Cassidy, now president emerita, served as Bryn Mawr's president from 2013 to 2024 after joining the faculty in 1993.

The portrait breaks with recent tradition. According to the college, it will be the first since founding president James Rhoads to show a Bryn Mawr president without academic regalia. Rhoads led the college from 1885 to 1894.

Carrie Robbins, a curator of Bryn Mawr's Special Collections, led the nearly three-year project. She was first asked to take it on in November 2023 and began by consulting her Bryn Mawr network, including Kim Sajet, former director of the National Portrait Gallery and a Bryn Mawr graduate.

Robbins assembled a list of a dozen artists for Cassidy to review. The first round didn't click.

"I don't think there was really anybody she was especially excited about in that first round," Robbins said.

That process, though, helped Robbins learn Cassidy's aesthetic preferences. A second round led to Sprung's selection.

Sprung visited campus in October 2024, photographing Cassidy in different locations, clothing and light. She mixed paints on the spot to capture colors the camera couldn't. She then returned to her Brooklyn studio to work.

Sprung said she was struck by the campus atmosphere and Cassidy's personality, and tried to capture that serenity in the finished piece.

Robbins traveled to New York in September 2025 to view the finished work and sent photos to Cassidy for approval. The portrait spent about nine months with a framer in Philadelphia before arriving on campus in August.

Sprung's other subjects include official portraits of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, as well as university presidents at Columbia, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania.

The unveiling takes place during Owls Fest 2026 at 5:15 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, in the Great Hall in Old Library.