|
Smithsonian Institution, P. O. Box 37012, Washington, D.C. 20013 7012
Elizabeth Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director
The Smithsonian American Art Museum holds the nation’s oldest federal art collection, its history covering 180 years. Successively named the National Gallery of Art, the National Collection of Fine Arts and the National Museum of American Art, the Museum collects art from all regions, cultures and traditions of the United States. Its emphasis on research, publications, exhibitions and public programs reflects its mission to promote the understanding and appreciation of American art. In addition to welcoming visitors to its historic landmark building in Washington, D.C., the American Art Museum serves a broad national public through electronic outreach, traveling exhibitions and educational materials.
Resources and Facilities
The American Art Museum has been located since 1968 in a monumental Greek revival building originally constructed in 1836-67 for the U.S. Patent Office. Almost demolished in the 1950s, the structure was renovated by the Smithsonian, receiving National Historic landmark status in 1973. The historic building, which also houses the National Portrait Gallery, reopened to the public in 2006 following a major renovation. New features include an expanded 95,000 square feet of exhibition space, a conservation laboratory and art storage area that are visible to the public and a 346-seat auditorium. The Museum’s office and research functions operate out of the nearby Victor Building at 750 Ninth Street NW.
The American Art Museum’s collection includes over 42,000 works. Among the collection’s special strengths are 19th-landscape paintings, Gilded Age and American impressionist paintings, 19th- and 20th-century marble and bronze sculpture, 20th-century realism, photography and graphic art, art, folk art, Latino art, and African American art. Recent exhibitions organized by the Museum include: “Close to Home: Photographers and Their Families;” “Alexis Rockman: A Fable for Tomorrow;” “Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg;” “Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Remembering the Running Fence;” “Framing the West: The Survey Photographs of Timothy H. O’Sullivan;” and “What’s It All Mean: William T. Wiley in Retrospect.”
The Renwick Gallery, a curatorial department of the American Art Museum, opened in 1972 in the restored Second Empire building designed in 1859 by James Renwick for the original Corcoran Gallery of Art. The permanent collection of American crafts and decorative arts includes works in glass, clay, wood, fiber and metal. The Grand Salon and the Octagon Room feature paintings hung salon-style, creating the elegant setting of a nineteenth-century collector’s picture gallery. Complementing the acquisition program are exhibitions, fellowships and prizes for scholarly research in the modern craft movement. Special events related to the exhibitions include lectures, symposia, craft demonstrations and films. Recent exhibitions organized by the Renwick include: “History in the Making: Renwick Craft Invitational 2011;” “A Revolution in Wood: The Bresler Collection;”and “Going West! Quilts and Community.”
The American Art Museum, combining its own facilities with those available in and around the Washington area, constitutes an unparalleled center for the study of American art. Its extensive collections of art are supplemented by specialized research resources that include the Inventory of American Paintings, a computer listing of more than 340,000 works in public and private collections done by artists active in America by 1914; the Inventory of American Sculpture, a database providing information on more than 91,000 sculptures in public and private collections throughout the country, including outdoor monuments surveyed through the Save Outdoor Sculpture! Program; The Pre-1877 Art Exhibition Catalogue Index of nearly 137,000 artworks shown in over 1,000 exhibitions in the United States and Canada through the centennial year; and the Photograph Archives, with nearly a half million photographs, negatives and slides. Scholars have access to a specialized branch library of more than 180,000 volumes and clipping files numbering upward of one million items, the Graphic Arts Study Center containing more than 28,500 works on paper (prints, drawings, watercolors and photographs), the Joseph Cornell Study Center of source materials and studio effects, and the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, with its vast holdings of more than sixteen million items.
Research Opportunities
A major advantage of study at the American Art Museum is the opportunity to work within a community of scholars actively engaged in research on history, conservation and criticism of American art and related topics. The research programs of the American Art Museum are considered an essential part of its operation. The professional staff is concerned with exhibitions and educational programs as well as collections research and other curatorial duties. Facilities are provided for visiting scholars on all levels and for interns in museum training. Pre- and post-doctoral scholars are in residence each year. A regular series of lunchtime seminars, public lectures and symposia provides a forum for the exchange of ideas among area scholars. Publication opportunities are available through the Museum’s peer-reviewed journal American Art and through exhibition and collection-related catalogues and books. The Patricia and Phillip Frost Essay Award is presented annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American Art, and is made possible by the generous contribution of the Patricia and Phillip Frost Endowment. The annual Terra Foundation for American Art International Essay Prize recognizes excellent scholarship by a non-U.S. scholar in the field of historical American art; the winning manuscript is translated and published in American Art. The Charles C. Eldredge Prize is awarded annually by the Museum’s support group, the American Art Forum, for outstanding scholarship in the field of American art.
RESEARCH STAFF BELL, Nicholas R, Curator, Renwick Gallery. B.A. (2005) Simon Fraser University; M.A. (2008) University of Delaware. Research specialties: American Craft, Decorative Arts in America 18th-21st centuries, Material Culture.
GLAZER, Lee, Executive Editor, "American Art", and Academic Programs Coordinator. Ph.D. (1996) University of Pennsylvania. Research specialties: 19th- and early 20th- century American painting and visual/material culture; Whistler and Aestheticism in an international context.
HARVEY, Eleanor Jones, Chief Curator. B.A. (1983) University of Virginia; M.A. (1985), M.Phil. (1987), Ph.D. (1998) Yale University. Research specialties: American Art; 19th century landscape painting; 20th century landscape art; Civil War and Reconstruction era art; Texas and Southwestern Regionalism.
MECKLENBURG, Virginia M., Senior Curator. B.A. (1968), M.A. (1970) University of Texas; Ph.D. (1983) University of Maryland. Research specialties: Twentieth-century American art: Ashcan art; New Deal and abstract art of the 1930s; art of the 1960s and 1970s.
MOSER, Joann G., Senior Curator of Graphic Arts. B.A. (1969) Smith College; M.A. (1972), Ph.D. (1976) University of Wisconsin. Research specialties: Twentieth-century American prints and drawings; the history of the monotype in America; twentieth-century American art.
RAMOS, E. Carmen, Curator for Latino Art. B.A. (1988) New York University; M.A. (1995) University of Chicago. Research specialties: modern art of Latin America, American Latino artists, African American Art.
TRUETTNER, William H., Senior Curator. B.A. (1957) Williams College; M.A. (1959) University of Michigan. Research specialties: Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American painting; George Catlin; art of the American West.
AFFILIATED RESEARCH STAFF BROUN, Elizabeth, Margaret and Terry Stent Director. B.A. (1968), M.A. (1970), Ph.D. (1976) University of Kansas. Research specialties: Late nineteenth-century American art; graphic arts; contemporary art.
EDER, Elizabeth K., Assistant Chair, National Education Partnerships. B.A. (1997) American University; Ph.D. (2001) University of Maryland. Research specialties: history of education in U.S. and Japan, women's educational history, museum education, U.S.-Japan exchanges esp. 19th century.
FINK, Lois Marie, Research Curator Emeritus. B.A. (1951) Capital University; M.A. (1955), Ph.D. (1970) University of Chicago. Research specialties: Nineteenth-and early twentieth-century American art; relationship of French art to American art; history of American art institutions, especially the National Academy of Design and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
GURNEY, George, Deputy Chief Curator. B.A. (1962) Brown University; M.A. (1965) University of Pennsylvania; Ph.D. (1978) University of Delaware. Research specialties: American sculpture.
HENNESSEY, Christine, Chief, Research and Scholars Center. B.A.E. (1974) Oklahoma State University; M.A. (1982), M.L.S. (1986) University of Maryland. Research specialties: Librarian, Art research databases and documentation standards; reference sources for American painting and sculpture.
INGALLS, Helen B., Objects Conservator. B.A. (1975) Emory University; M.A. and Certificate of Advanced Study in Conservation (1984) State University College at Buffalo. Research specialties: Conservation of American Folk art; contemporary crafts; nineteenth-and twentieth-century American sculpture; preventive conservation of acrylic urethane outdoor sculpture..
KERR-ALLISON, Amber, Painting Conservator. B.A. (2000) Virginia Commonweath University; M.S. (2008) University of Delaware. Research specialties: Paintings Conservation; Preventive Conservation; Materials and Techniques of Henry Ossawa Tanner (American, 1859-1937.
MAYNOR, Catherine I., Paper Conservator. B.A. (1978) University of Toronto; M.A. and Certificate of Advanced Study (1983) Cooperstown Graduate Programs. Research specialties: History of artists' materials, techniques; conservation materials and methods.
MILLS, Cynthia, Historian, emeritus. B.A. (1968) University of Michigan; Ph.D. (1996) University of Maryland. Research specialties: American sculpture in the Gilded Age.
SHOCKEY, Hugh, Objects Conservator. B.A. (1996) Rhodes College; M.S. (2002) University of Delaware. Research specialties: Innovative treatment methods for traditional and modern sculptural materials; including CO2 snow ablation and aqueous and solvent gel technologies; treatment of composites, modern materials, and traditional sculpture materials; exhibits, case design, and mountmaking.
Smithsonian Research Staff and Affiliated
Research Staff E-Mail Directory |
