Smithsonian American Art Museum
ARIAH Roundtable on American Art at CAA 2025
Outgoing ARIAH chair, Caroline Fowler, organized a panel at the 2025 College Art Association annual conference to discuss how member institutions are currently supporting research on American art, craft, and visual culture. Amelia Goerlitz, ARIAH's incoming Chair, described the Smithsonian American Art Museum's (SAAM) efforts to expand research opportunities, including a partnership with the National Museum of the American Indian and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art to create a fellowship in Indigenous American art, a growing area in the field. Curator and Director of Research, Fellowships, and University Partnerships Mindy Besaw discussed the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art's groundbreaking exhibition, Knowing the West, which explores how people see the American West through art. The Lunder Institute's Director Erica Wall presented results from the Lunder Institute @ initiative, which invites institutions across the nation to examine American art, its history, its future, and its ongoing evolution. Anne Helmreich, Director of the Archives of American Art, and Lindsay Harris, head of SAAM's Research and Scholars Center, described their collaboration to convene scholars, artists, and thought partners to consider the key terms framing American art at the nation's 250th anniversary in 2026. In response to reduced funding and the continued desire for professional opportunities and networking to strengthen communities, panel participants and attendees shared creative solutions they are pursuing, such as institutional partnerships, conversations about best practices, and inter-generational, two-way mentorship, all of which ARIAH supports as part of its mission. We look forward to future conversations about art scholarship across the Americas at ARIAH's annual meeting hosted by the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas in Mexico City in November 2025!
March 6, 2025
