News

As part of the federal Save America’s Treasures initiative to preserve significant historic properties and collections, the Archives of American Art has been awarded a matching grant of $250,000 for the preservation and digitization of the Archives’ Oral History Collection, one of the oldest, most-consulted and historically significant oral history collections in the country. The Archives is the nation’s pre-eminent repository for primary sources documenting the history of the visual arts.

The Archives of American Art mourns the passing of Nancy Spero on October 18, 2009. An icon of feminist art, Nancy Spero’s assemblages and installations confronted issues of inequality and oppression.

The Samuel H. Kress Foundation has awarded $100,000 to the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art to digitize the historical records of the Jacques Seligmann and Co. gallery for preservation and online public access. 

The Archives of American Art mourns the passing of Otto Heino, an influential and charismatic ceramicist. With his late wife, Vivika Heino (1910–1995), they forged a distinct blend of traditional Asian glazes and Scandinavian minimalism.

The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art is pleased to announce the award of a three-year grant of $213,315 from the Leon Levy Foundation for the archival processing of the André Emmerich Gallery business records and Emmerich’s personal papers. 

The Archives of American Art mourns the passing of Robert Rauschenberg, one of the world’s most influential American artists.

This gift is the latest commitment in what has been an important long-term relationship between the Archives of American Art and the Brown Foundation.

John W. Smith has been named director of the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art, effective June 26, 2006. He is currently the assistant director for collections, exhibitions and research at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Three major research collections representing a large body of primary source material documenting the evolution of modernism in American art history have been organized, arranged, preserved, and cataloged according to archival standards. Web-accessible electronic EAD (Encoded Archival Description) finding aids have been created and made available on this website as well as on the Research Libraries Group’s Archival Resources website.