News

The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, is pleased to announce several recent acquisitions, including collections from artists new to the Archives along with significant additions to existing papers and other materials that enrich the story of American art.  Highlights among them include the papers of the postmodernist painter and printmaker Emma Amos, abstract expressionist Nela Arias-Misson, jewelry artist Ken Cory, and woodworker Emil Milan.

The Archives of American Art Journal is planning a special issue showcasing new approaches to oral archives. We invite proposals for manuscripts that ask: What distinguishes oral evidence from other kinds of primary sources? What critical tools do scholars need to interpret that kind of evidence in innovative ways? How have scholars relied on oral narratives to construct histories of American art, and what have been the benefits or limitations of doing so?

The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution is pleased to announce the launch of the Pandemic Oral History Project, a series of 85 newly conducted interviews of American artists and art world figures living and working through the seismic events of 2020.

The Fall 2019 issue of the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art Journal has been awarded first prize in the category of magazines/scholarly journals in the American Alliance of Museums’ 29th annual Museum Publications Design Competition. This competition recognizes and encourages superior execution and ingenuity in the graphic design of museum publications and is the only national, juried competition of its kind.

The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, has acquired the archive of the noted New York arts nonprofit, Art in General, which recently announced its closure following nearly forty years of operation. Since its founding, Art in General has been a cutting-edge organization in Lower Manhattan (and, since 2016, in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood), organizing exhibitions and programming that launched the careers of many artists and curators, providing a venue to present work that pushed the boundaries of artmaking.

"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 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.

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.

The Archives of American Art is pleased to announce that we will serve as the leading repository for the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Correspondence Archive. The artist’s correspondence—original letters, postcards, snapshots with notes, and other personal communications, sent to his friends, colleagues, and family—share a rich relationship with his work and providing access to this material will benefit future scholarship. The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation has been conducting research and outreach on behalf of the Archives of American Art since 2018. Their visionary efforts will ensure that these primary sources will be preserved and made available for generations to come.

Miriam Grotte-Jacobs, a PhD candidate in the history of art at Johns Hopkins University, has been awarded the 2019 Dedalus Foundation Graduate Research Essay Prize at the Archives of American Art. The prize recognizes original research by a graduate student that engages with the holdings of the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art and focuses on studies related to painting, sculpture, and the allied arts from 1940 to the present day.