News

Anne Helmreich has been named the director of the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, effective Feb. 27, 2023. Helmreich is currently the associate director of grants programming at the Getty Foundation and brings 35 years of experience in higher education and arts administration to this new role.

The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, and the American Craft Council (ACC) are pleased to announce the acquisition of Paul J. Smith’s papers.

The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art celebrated the 2022 recipients of the Archives of American Art Medal and The Lawrence A. Fleischman Award for Scholarly Excellence in the Field of American Art History Tuesday, Oct. 25, in New York’s Rainbow Room at the Archives’ annual gala. Both awards recognize individuals who have made transformative contributions in the field of American art. Lowery Stokes Sims received The Lawrence A. Fleischman Award for Scholarly Excellence in the Field of American Art History, and Peter M. Brant and Ursula von Rydingsvard were awarded the Archives of American Art Medal. 

The Archives will host a six-month teaching fellowship, to be held virtually between October 14, 2022, and April 21, 2023.  This fellowship, funded by a digital art history grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, seeks to foster new forms of research and collaboration as well as new approaches to teaching and learning.

The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, is pleased to announce Between Artists: In Conversation with History, a six-episode series from its podcast ARTiculated: Dispatches from the Archives of American Art. This special series presents significant intergenerational dialogues between artists of the present and voices from the past.

The Archives of American Art is pleased to invite applications from college-level art history faculty to participate in a six-month virtual teaching fellowship that will run from October 2022 through April 2023. Anyone teaching art history at the college or university level, including part-time and adjunct instructors, is invited to apply. The fellowship will support the development of course syllabi and assignments that make central use of primary sources for teaching undergraduate art history.

The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, is pleased to announce that it has acquired the papers of noted critic, writer, and broadcaster Robert Hughes. Measuring approximately 28 linear feet, the collection documents Hughes’s life and multifaceted career through extensive personal and professional correspondence; notebooks; drafts of articles, lectures, documentaries, and book projects; audio and video recordings; photographs; press clippings; and other personal records.

The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, is pleased to announce the election of George Frederick Mead Merck as the new chair of the Archives’ Board of Trustees, effective March 1, 2022.  Merck will succeed Bridget Moore, who served as chair of the board since October 2018 and has been named trustee emerita, also effective March 1.

The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution is pleased to announce that the recently acquired four volumes of diaries by art conservator and World War II Monuments Man, Lieutenant Commander George Leslie Stout are now fully digitized and available online.

The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, has acquired the archival materials of Jerry Dreva, the noted contemporary artist and founding member of conceptual rock band Les Petites Bon-bons.