News

The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, is pleased to launch episode five of Articulated: Dispatches from the Archives of American Art, highlighting the voices and stories of artists who participated in the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, otherwise known at ACT UP, a grassroots group formed in 1987 to fight AIDS.

The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, is pleased to announce Articulated: Dispatches from the Archives of American Art, a new podcast series showcasing one of the oldest, largest, and most respected oral history collections in the world.

The Archives of American Art is pleased to announce the appointment of Jenny L. Williams, as associate director for advancement. Williams will be based in the Archives’ Washington, D.C. Headquarters. For the time being, she will work remotely in Washington, as the Archives’ research centers remain temporarily closed due to COVID-19.

The papers of Nancy Holt (1938–2014), a founding member of the earth, land, and conceptual art movements, will now be a part of the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art. Holt’s papers document the development of her art and ideas over the course of more than four decades, her network of artist peers, her personal life, and her care for the legacy of Robert Smithson.

The Archives of American Art is pleased to invite applications from postsecondary teachers to participate in a series of two professional development workshops, held virtually in August and September 2021, focused on teaching the history of American art with primary sources.

The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, announced today that it has received a major gift of records of the Allan Stone Gallery. The visionary connoisseur and dealer Allan Stone (1932–2006) founded his eponymous gallery on December 7, 1960. These voluminous records date from the gallery’s inception on the Upper East Side through 2019, and include correspondence, price lists, invoices, annotated calendars, photographs, gallery publications, and news clippings. This collection is a significant addition to the Archives’ holdings of more than 200 gallery records documenting the American art market from the late-nineteenth century to the present day.

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.