Fellowship Opportunities at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Amelia Goerlitz Announcement
Location
United States
Subject Fields
American History / Studies, Art, Art History & Visual Studies

The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) and its Renwick Gallery invite applications for research fellowships in the art, craft, and visual culture of the United States. Fellowships are residential and support full-time independent and dissertation research. Recipients will be part of the premier residential fellowship program in American art—one that celebrates its fiftieth anniversary in 2020.

The holdings of the Smithsonian American Art Museum reveal the United States’ rich artistic and cultural history from the colonial period to today. This unparalleled collection of over 44,000 works by more than 7,000 artists includes special strengths in nineteenth- and twentieth-century sculpture, nineteenth-century landscape painting and imagery of the American West, Gilded Age and American impressionist painting, twentieth-century realism, New Deal art, photography and graphic art, self-taught art, work by Latinx and African-American artists, and time-based media. Contemporary American craft and decorative art are featured in the Renwick Gallery, a branch of the museum located across from the White House.

Resources

Each scholar is provided a study carrel in SAAM’s Research and Scholars Center, situated across the street from the museum. There fellows have access to a 180,000-volume library that specializes in American art, history, and biography; the Archives of American Art; the graphics collections of SAAM and NPG; the Joseph Cornell Study Center; and the Nam June Paik Archive, as well as a variety of image collections and research databases.

Located in downtown Washington, DC, SAAM’s Research and Scholars Center is a short walk from other Smithsonian museums and libraries, the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and the National Gallery of Art. Regular lunchtime seminars, workshops, lectures, and symposia provide a forum for lively scholarly exchange and professional advancement.

Support

The stipend for one year is $36,000 for predoctoral fellows and $50,400 for postdoctoral and senior fellows, plus research and travel allowances. (Senior-level recipients of the museum’s Terra Foundation Fellowships are eligible for an augmented stipend of $60,000 for the full year.) Standard residencies are twelve months, but shorter terms are available with prorated stipends. The Smithsonian Office of International Relations will assist with arranging J-1 exchange visas for fellowship recipients who require them.

Deadline

November 1st is the application deadline for fellowships that begin on or after June 1, 2020. For applications, research consultation, and general information visit AmericanArt.si.edu/fellowships or email SAAMFellowships@si.edu.

Contact Email
SAAMFellowships@si.edu