"Like many Americans, watching multiple incidents of deadly violence against black people unfold before our eyes has left us feeling demoralized and distraught, aghast and angry. Not only have we been forced to grapple with the impact of a global pandemic, we have been forced to confront the reality that, despite gains made in the past fifty years, we are still a nation riven by inequality and racial division. The state of our democracy feels fragile and precarious...We express our deepest sympathy to the families and communities of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and the far too many preceding them whose needless deaths were brought about by unjustified violence. We hope that their pain and sorrow compel America to confront its tortured racial past, and that this moment becomes the impetus for our nation to address racism and social inequities in earnest." –Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch
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Featured Exhibition
Pushing the Envelope: Mail Art from the Archives of American Art
Mail art (alternatively called “correspondence art” or “postal art”) emerged as a form of artistic practice in which an international network of participants use the mail to make art and share it with others regarding culture and communications, creatively sidestepping the art market and, in many instances, eluding government censors.
Collections on View
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Organized by Curator of Manuscripts Mary Savig, the exhibition revisits a 1977 exhibition at Los Angeles’ Woman’s Building, a feminist art school, gallery, and community space founded by Judy Chicago, Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, and Arlene Raven in 1971. The Archives, which holds the Woman’s Building papers in its collections, will reconsider this exhibition by showing responses from the 1977 show alongside new submissions by both original participating artists as well as a new generation of diverse artists. Approximately 75 works will be on view.What is Feminist Art? is now on view at the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery in Washington, D.C.
News
May. 14, 2020
The Archives of American Art is pleased to announce the appointments of Ben Gillespie, as oral historian and Jacob Proctor as the Gilbert and Ann Kinney New York Collector.
Mar. 20, 2020
Though our offices are closed, we're always here for you online. Our staff is available to respond to your questions at aaaemref@si.edu. More than ever, during this uncertain time, we hope our collections serve as a source of endless discovery and inspiration.
On the Blog
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July 16, 2020Acquisitions: Athena Tacha Papers
Curator of manuscripts Mary Savig highlights the Athena Tacha Papers, recently acquired by the Archives of American Art. The following essay was originally published in the Spring 2020 issue (vol. 59, no. 1) of the Archives of American Art Journal.