CAA News Today

The Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, California, has acquired the archive of the artist, writer, curator, and scholar Harmony Hammond. The donation includes correspondence, photographs, original source material for her art, professional papers, publication drafts, editioned prints, original artwork, files, and a slide registry devoted to lesbian artists.

The Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have been awarded a $506,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to establish a new Summer Institute for Technical Studies in Art. The program, designed for graduate students from art-history programs across North America who are interested in broadening their experience with object-focused technical inquiry, methodologies, and instruction, will begin in June 2017.

The Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have received a $1 million gift from a Harvard Business School alumnus, Ken Hakuta, to establish the Hakuta Family Endowment Fund, enabling the creation of the Nam June Paik Fellowship at the Harvard Art Museums. Hakuta is the nephew of the pioneering artist Nam June Paik.

John Cabot University in Rome, Italy, has inaugurated a new MA program in art history to begin in fall 2017. Accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the degree is the first US-accredited master’s degree in the history of art based entirely in Rome. The program can be completed in approximately fifteen months of full-time study.

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia has received a generous $500,000 gift from Julie Jensen Bryan and Robert Bryan to name the PAFA Printmaking Shop. This transformative commitment ensures that printmaking will remain one of the school’s core artistic disciplines.

The Princeton University Art Museum in Princeton, New Jersey, has posted to its website more than five thousand images and related photographic material by the seminal American modernist Minor White. The two-year digitization and cataloging project, funded in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, provides online access for the first time to the most significant photographic content of the Minor White Archive, which includes finished prints, artist’s proof cards, and bibliographic history.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, has surpassed its campaign goals for both financial gifts and significant art gifts, amassing a combined total of $105 million with more than one year remaining in the campaign. The $65 million cash goal was exceeded by $3 million, funds supporting the Renwick Gallery renovation, an education center for the museum’s National Historic Landmark building, and the museum’s endowments. The campaign will continue through 2017 with a focus on additional artworks and endowments to support curatorial, technology, and education initiatives.

The Archives of American Art, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, has received a three-year grant of up to $900,000 from the Walton Family Foundation to support the ongoing digitization of the archives’ collection, enabling the organization to double its current rate. The Archives of American Art is obliged to match the grant, to be given in three installments.

The Archives of American Art, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, has announced a long-term partnership with the Terra Foundation for American Art to support the digitization of the archives’ collections. Terra has made a $4.5 million commitment, $4 million of which is a challenge grant to be matched by the Smithsonian, to seed an endowment for ongoing digitization. The remaining $500,000 will provide operating support for the current digitization program.

California State University, Long Beach, has received a grant from the Graham Foundation to support an exhibition, Robert Irwin: Site Determined, at the University Art Museum.

Harmony Hammond, Dance of the Ladder, 1981 (artwork © Harmony Hammond; photograph provided by the Getty Research Institute)

The Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, California, has acquired the archive of the artist, writer, curator, and scholar Harmony Hammond. The donation includes correspondence, photographs, original source material for her art, professional papers, publication drafts, editioned prints, original artwork, files, and a slide registry devoted to lesbian artists.

The main entrance to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (photograph by Brett Beyer)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has reaffirmed its long-term cooperative partnership with the Ministry of Culture of the Government of India by renewing a Memorandum of Understanding for five additional years.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has been named the world’s top museum in TravelAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Awards, based on the quality and quantity of reviews and ratings over a twelve-month period, for the second year in a row.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York has received a grant from the Graham Foundation to support an exhibition, Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive, scheduled for June 12–October 1, 2017.

Scenes from the Parsons Making Center at the New School (photographs by Matt Matthews and Michael Moran)

Parsons School of Design in New York has opened the Parsons Making Center at the New School, a hub for a network of making spaces that provide university students with state-of-the-art tools to design projects in a range of disciplines.

Princeton University Art Museum in Princeton, New Jersey, has received a $150,000 Museums for America grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to support the ongoing Collections Discovery Initiative, designed to ensure that Princeton’s Asian art collection ­can be shared with the broadest possible audiences, especially with scholars and researchers. The grant will allow the museum to enhance and standardize the cataloguing of its Asian art holdings, develop rich educational materials, and restructure its Asian art microsite into an in-depth sustainable resource with an innovative new interface.

Using virtual-reality technology, you can now experience the exhibition WONDER on your mobile device (photograph provided by the Smithsonian American Art Museum)

The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, has launched Renwick Gallery WONDER 360, an immersive 360-degree virtual-reality app for Apple and Android mobile devices. The app allows audiences to explore the entirety of the museum’s 2015–16 exhibition WONDER, presented at its Renwick Gallery, in 3D; it also expands the visitor experience through emerging technologies and is the first virtual-reality mobile app the Smithsonian has offered.

The Society of Architectural Historians, based in Chicago, Illinois, has received a grant from the Graham Foundation to support a public program, a half-day seminar on “Making and Re-Making Glasgow: Heritage and Sustainability,” at its upcoming conference in Scotland.

The University of Houston in Texas has created a new College of the Arts, comprising the School of Art, the Moores School of Music, the School of Theatre and Dance, the Blaffer Art Museum, the Cynthia Mitchell Woods Center for the Arts, the Center for Arts Leadership, and the Graduate Program for Arts Management.

Bruno Pouliot, senior objects conservator (far right), and Ann Wagner, curator of decorative arts (standing), examine coatings on silver objects during Phase I (2013–15) of the IMLS-funded project, alongside the former conservation technicians Maggie Bearden (left) and Kaitlin Andrews (right) (photograph provided by the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library)

The Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library in Winterthur, Delaware, has received a $110,759 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services for a project on preventive care for metal objects, which Winterthur deems its highest conservation treatment priority.

The exhibition Animal-Shaped Vessels will benefit from an NEH grant (photograph provided by Harvard Art Museums)

Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have been awarded a $325,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support their fall 2018 exhibition, Animal-Shaped Vessels from the Ancient World: Feasting with Gods, Heroes, and Kings.

Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have unveiled a new online resource dedicated to the Bauhaus, one of the most influential schools of art and design in the twentieth century.

Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore has been awarded a $142,604 grant from the Maryland Governor’s Office on Service and Volunteerism, in partnership with the Corporation for National and Community Service, to support the school’s Community Art Collaborative AmeriCorps service program.

Studying African art (photograph provided by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond has accepted a $1.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the in-depth technical examination, conversation, and art-historical study of the museum’s African art collection.

The American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, based in Washington, DC, has received a comprehensive financial analysis and capacity building financial support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through a four-year pilot initiative, organized in collaboration with the National Performance Network/Visual Artists Network and Nonprofit Finance Fund.

Vidya Dehejia

The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, has posted audio and video of the sixty-fifth A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts. In a six-part series titled “The Thief Who Stole My Heart: The Material Life of Chola Bronzes from South India, c. 855–1280,” the art historian Vidya Dehejia of Columbia University discusses the work of artists of Chola India who created exceptional bronzes of the god Shiva.

The Cincinnati Art Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, has accepted a five-year, $500,000 donation from the Harold C. Schott Foundation to strengthen the museum’s special exhibitions and related programming.

Architectural rendering of the Bo Barlett Center at Columbus State University from Olson Kundig

Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia, has created the Bo Bartlett Center as the result of a public/private partnership dedicated to the arts, creativity, and collaboration. Opening in late 2017, the center will feature a gallery, archive, and multidisciplinary programming spaces.

The Detroit Institute of Arts in Michigan has been given a $1 million pledge to its operating endowment from the Founders Junior Council. The Egyptian gallery will be named the Founders Junior Council Gallery in recognition of the promised gift.

Getty Publications, based in Los Angeles, California, has launched two new online catalogues highlighting antiquities in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, providing free access to these works online and in a variety of downloadable formats.

Getty Research Portal

The Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, California, has launched an updated version of the Getty Research Portal, which now offers more than 100,000 volumes available from over twenty international partners. Launched in 2012, the Getty Research Portal is an online search gateway that aggregates the metadata of art-history and cultural texts, with links to fully digitized copies that are free to download.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York has received a major grant from the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation to support Guggenheim Social Practice, a new initiative that will explore the ways in which artists can initiate projects that engage community participants, together with the museum, to foster new forms of public engagement.

Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore has received a $75,000 award from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the North Avenue Knowledge Exchange, an educational platform developed with Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse and Station North Arts and Entertainment. Centered in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District and open to all, the Knowledge Exchange will provide opportunities for neighborhood residents to learn from each other and to work on projects that improve the community through art, design, and creativity.

The Minneapolis Institute of Art in Minnesota has unveiled a series of new digital initiatives designed to augment and personalize visitors’ experiences within and beyond the museum’s galleries. From innovative mobile apps that facilitate a customized journey through the museum to in-depth multimedia explorations of treasured artworks—as well as new features on the museum’s website—these new digital platforms will allow visitors to more deeply engage with the institute’s collection and create shared art experiences in unprecedented ways.

Oklahoma State University in Stillwater has won a $15,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support an exhibition of artwork and related programming centered on female deities in Native American creation stories. The exhibition will be held September 2016–January 2017 at the Oklahoma State University Museum of Art.

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia has created a curatorial fellowship dedicated to enhancing diversity ranks among curators in the fine arts. The Winston and Carolyn Lowe Curatorial Fellowship for Diversity in the Fine Arts is a full-time, two-year position that will offer a highly mentored and structured curatorial experience at the academy.

The Princeton University Art Museum in Princeton, New Jersey, has won a $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support Nature’s Nation: American Art and Environment, an exhibition, publication, and companion programming that will explore the evolving human understanding of, and relation to, the natural world.

SAH Archipedia

The Society of Architectural Historians, based in Chicago, Illinois, has been awarded a $205,000 outright and matching grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to commission new content and site enhancements to SAH Archipedia, a media-rich online encyclopedia of American architecture developed by SAH in collaboration with the University of Virginia Press.

The University of Oklahoma in Norman has accepted a $40,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the commissioning and exhibition of photographs of the state’s Native American community by the contemporary Navajo artist Will Wilson. The exhibition, to open in spring 2017, will be held at the university’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art.

This Currier & Ives hand-colored lithograph is among 1,500 works to be digitized at Winterthur thanks to an NEA Art Works grant recommendation.

The Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library in Wilmington, Delaware, has accepted a $35,000 grant recommendation from the National Endowment for the Arts to digitize 1,500 important works of art on paper. The project is part of a Winterthur initiative to thoroughly document its collection, upgrade its cataloguing content, and provide broad access through the museum’s collection website.

The Bruce Museum of Arts and Science in Greenwich, Connecticut, has announced that its Education Department has won the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County’s 2016 Arts and Culture Empowerment (ACE) Award for Education. The award celebrates individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to the Fairfield County community through arts and culture.

The Cincinnati Art Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, has launched a newly redesigned website that makes digital images of nearly sixty thousand artworks from its collection, accompanied by over four thousand high-quality photographs, accessible online for the first time. In addition, the museum’s upcoming contribution to the Artstor Digital Library will increase access to the collection for universities and educational partners.

The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, has received a grant of $600,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that provides three years of programmatic support for the Institute’s Research and Academic Program to strengthen scholarship in art history and visual studies. The funding specifically enables the program to pursue new initiatives while also continuing support for key programs established with earlier support from the foundation.

The Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore has been awarded a three-year, $600,000 grant from the Philip E. and Carole R. Ratcliffe Foundation to launch the development of Up/Start MICA, a college-wide entrepreneurship initiative that will capitalize on the unique talents of the college’s students and recent graduates.

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, has debuted the second release in its Online Editions series, Italian Paintings of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries by the late Miklós Boskovits, one of the leading scholars of early Italian art. This online catalogue—more than a decade in the making—offers a fresh examination of this collection and made possible through the generous support of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through a special endowment for scholarly publications supported by the Getty Foundation.

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, has accepted a $10 million grant from the Walton Family Foundation to establish the John Wilmerding Fund for Education in American Art. The John Wilmerding Fund—named for the museum’s retired curator, deputy director, trustee, and chairman—will support programs with a broad focus on American art, celebrating Wilmerding’s immeasurable contributions to the field.

The Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut, along with Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, have jointly acquired the Lucien Aigner Collection, an extraordinary archive of photographs, negatives, recordings, film, books, magazine clippings, letters, and journalistic writings. A pioneer of 1930s photojournalism, Lucien Aigner (1901–1999) belonged to the generation of photographers that included Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Eisenstaedt, and Erich Salomon.

The Frick Collection in New York has partnered with the Ghetto Film School, a Bronx high school for filmmaking, for a new initiative called the Frick Film Project. The project will provide onsite arts education for students across the fine arts and cinematic arts.

The Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, California, has released the Getty Scholars’ Workplace, a free downloadable tool designed specifically for collaborative humanities research.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has refreshed and upgraded its website and app. Among the new features is a series of enhancements that create a more intuitive resource and experience for both online browsers and institutional visitors.

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, has received a $30 million challenge grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The funds will support digital programs, education, conservation, and the museum’s Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, has accepted a $375,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to underwrite the implementation of major objectives in its Linked Open Date Initiative.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York has accepted a $3 million challenge grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The funds will endow the position of Carol Stringari, the museum’s deputy director and chief conservator, as well as a new job, the director of engagement, conservation, and collections.

The University of Virginia in Charlottesville has received a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for the testing and implementation of a prototype for digitizing artist’s books by a group of curators, artists, critics, and scholars.