Author Archives: Courtney Tkacz

Smithsonian Fellows Lectures in American Art

The Fellowship Program at the Smithsonian American Art Museum cordially invites you to attend three afternoons of lectures in American art delivered by Smithsonian art history research fellows. The talks will be held in the museum’s McEvoy Auditorium, located at 8th and G Streets NW, Washington, D.C. This event is open to the public and no  reservations are required. For further information, please contact Amelia Goerlitz at (202) 633-8353 or email AmericanArtFellowships@si.edu.

In conjunction with the lecture series, the Library will be offering for sale a wide variety of books on American art. Book sales will be held in the auditorium lobby from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. each day and during the afternoon intermissions. All proceeds benefit the Library acquisition funds.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10

2:00 p.m. to 3:45 p.m., moderated by Karen Lemmey, Curator of Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum

  • Katelyn Crawford, Terra Foundation Predoctoral Fellow in American Art, University of Virginia: “West Indies Portraits: Traveling British Artists and Eighteenth-Century Jamaica”
  • Laura Turner Igoe, Predoctoral Fellow, Tyler School of Art, Temple University: “‘Covert of Danger and Blood’: The Incorporation of Philadelphia’s Centre Square Waterworks”
  • Catherine Holochwost, Patricia and Phillip Frost Postdoctoral Fellow, Independent Scholar: “Living Fossils and Rural Idylls, or Nature in the City”

Intermission

4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., moderated by Eleanor Harvey, Senior Curator, Smithsonian American Art Museum

  • Kenneth Hartvigsen, Predoctoral Fellow (National Museum of American History), Boston University: “Banjos, Rifles, and Razors: Black America’s Changing Image on Nineteenth-Century Sheet Music”
  • Shana Klein, Wyeth Foundation Predoctoral Fellow, University of New Mexico: “Cultivating Grapes, Cultivating Empires: A Study of Horticultural Imperialism in Late Nineteenth-Century Still-Life Representations of Fruit

THURSDAY, APRIL 11

2:00 p.m. to 3:45 p.m., moderated by William Truettner, Senior Curator, Smithsonian American Art Museum

  • Miri Kim, Predoctoral Fellow, Princeton University: “Dust, Dirt, and Gems: Imagining Geological ‘Deep Time’ in Albert Pinkham Ryder’s Moonlit Marines”
  • Adam M. Thomas, Douglass Foundation Predoctoral Fellow in American Art, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: “Out of Darkness: Irving Ramsay Wiles and Indeterminacy in the 1890s”
  • Emily Burns, Terra Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in American Art, Washington University in St. Louis: “The Indian and the Cowboy: American Primitives in Fin-de-Siècle Paris”

Intermission

4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., moderated by Emily D. Shapiro, Executive Editor, American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum

  • Abra Levenson, Predoctoral Fellow (National Portrait Gallery), Princeton University: “Charles Demuth’s Token Subjects”
  • Nicholas Miller, Predoctoral Fellow, Northwestern University: “Painting the Self, Painting the Other: The Ambiguities of Identity and Diaspora in Palmer Hayden’s The Janitor Who Paints”

FRIDAY, APRIL 12

2:00 p.m. to 3:45 p.m., moderated by Virginia Mecklenburg, Chief Curator, Smithsonian American Art Museum

  • Susanneh Bieber, Postdoctoral Fellow, Freie Universität Berlin: “Building a Better Future: Ben Shahn’s Mural Resources of America”
  • Hyewon Yoon, Predoctoral Fellow (National Portrait Gallery), Harvard University: “Lisette Model—The Window Reflections Series, 1938–41”
  • Berit Potter, Terra Foundation Predoctoral Fellow in American Art, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
  • “Beyond Skyscrapers and Automobiles: Exhibitions, Inter-American Cultural Exchange, and the War Emergency”

Intermission

4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., moderated by Joanna Marsh, James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum

  • Michael Maizels, Predoctoral Fellow (National Portrait Gallery), University of Virginia: “The Aftermath, Again: Re-staging the Work of Barry Le Va”
  • Gregory Zinman, Postdoctoral Fellow, New York University: “Analog Circuit Palettes, Cathode Ray Canvases: Situating Nam June Paik in the History of Motion Painting”

Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon for Women’s History Month

In honor of Women’s History Month, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Archives of American Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum are teaming up to organize a workshop and edit-a-thon focused on improving Wikipedia entries related to notable women artists and art world figures.

There are three goals for this project. The first is to facilitate knowledge creation about the history and achievements of inspirational women artists and other women in the arts. The second is to encourage inexperienced editors (especially women) to contribute to Wikipedia. The third goal is to increase awareness about the research resources freely available through these libraries, archives, and museums.

Follow this link for more information on participating in the Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon. Volunteers can participate in person or remotely.

National Digital Stewardship Residency with Dumbarton Oaks ICFA

Dumbarton Oaks has been named a host institution for the National Digital Stewardship Residency (NDSR), a groundbreaking program created by the Library of Congress in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). As one of only ten such institutions in the program’s inaugural year, Dumbarton Oaks is seeking a recent Master’s graduate with a passion for digital preservation to help the organization identify an institutional solution for long-term digital asset management.

Beginning in September 2013 the residency entails a paid, nine-month opportunity to work at Dumbarton Oaks. Following an intensive, two-week digital stewardship workshop at the Library of Congress, the chosen resident will be embedded in the Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives (ICFA), and with the guidance and support of Shalimar Fojas White, ICFA Manager, and Anne-Marie Viola, Metadata and Cataloging Specialist, will engage with departments across campus to catalog assets, discuss needs and raise awareness about digital preservation. The resident will also undertake an evaluation of possible digital asset management systems (DAMS), and ultimately, reach a recommendation and produce a detailed inventory and an institutional policy addressing digital asset appraisal and selection at Dumbarton Oaks.

To learn more about this exciting opportunity read our project proposal, http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/ndsr/documents/DO.pdf

In addition to Dumbarton Oaks, the inaugural NDSR host institutions include: the Association of Research Librarians, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Library of Congress, the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities, the National Library of Medicine, the National Security Archive, the Public Broadcasting Service, the Smithsonian Institution Archives, and the World Bank.

Visit the NSDR website for more details about the program: www.loc.gov/ndsr. For application instructions see: http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/ndsr/applicationinfo.html.

Applications will be accepted until April 2013.

(Source: “Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives”:  A blog from the Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives of Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C.)