26th Annual American Art Conference

26th Annual American Art Conference

Formal sessions take place at the Cosmopolitan Club in New York City

Events Added to the Program:

On Thursday:

5:30 – 7:00 p.m, Introduction to Doris Lee by Emily Lenz and Amy Torbert and reception celebrating “Doris Lee (1904-1983): American Storyteller" at D. Wigmore Fine Art, Inc. located at 152 West 57th Street.

7:00 – 8:00 p.m, a guided viewing with Christina Weyl, exhibition curator of “Two Generations of Women Printmakers” taking place at The Art Students League of New York (215 W 57th Street).

On Saturday:

10:30 – 11:30 a.m., viewing of "Alice Trumbull Mason: Shutter Paintings" located at Washburn Gallery: 177 10th Ave, New York, NY 10011.

12:00 – 4:00 p.m., an immersive afternoon to celebrate the work of Faith Ringgold at ACA Galleries, located at 529 W 20th Street #5E, New York, NY 10011).

On Sunday:

10:00am-12:00pm, Celebrating the Lynda Thomas Collection: American Art with Jazz Brunch at Bonhams, (located at 580 Madison Ave New York, NY; between 56th and 57th Streets). A privileged viewing of Bonham's American Art sale to which the IAC conference has been invited.

Register online: https://iacamericanart2021.eventbrite.com or call

Registration is $350. One Day Rates Available - Please call for more information. Museum professionals and educators’ rate (with ID): $160, student rate: (with ID): $100

This year, IAC will explore the roles women have played in American art—as artists, teachers, patrons, gallerists, scholars, curators, and subjects—and focus on their too-often unrecognized contributions. Given that 2021 has seen the first female vice president take office, thereby constituting a real if unofficial “year of the woman,” it is the ideal time for such consideration. The coming year will also mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Linda Nochlin’s seminal essay, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” and it is thus useful to consider whether or to what extent the institutional obstacles she identified as preventing western women from succeeding in the arts have been removed.

Formal sessions are complemented by private receptions and viewings at D. Wigmore Fine Art, Washburn Galleries, The Art Students League of New York, Bonhams and an immersive afternoon at ACA Galleries.

 Among confirmed participants are:

Steven Alan Bennett and Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt, founders, The Bennett Collection of Women Realists® and founders of The Bennett Prize, in 2018, a biennial award presented to woman artist for the creation of her own traveling solo exhibition of figurative realist painting.

Dorian Bergen, President, ACA Galleries.

Kayla Carlsen, Senior Vice President, Head of Department, American Art at Sotheby's.

Wanda Corn (Stanford) to discuss how O'Keeffe "architected" her persona.

Lesley Dill, American artist working at the intersection of language and fine art whose current exhibition, "Wilderness: Light Sizzles Around Me," opened at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Alabama, one of its six venues.

Clarisse Fava-Piz, Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow, The Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas. She will talk on American women sculptors (e.g., Whitney and Frishmuth) at the Salon.

Seth Feman, Deputy Director, Art & Interpretation and Curator of Photography, Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia and co-curator, “Alma W. Thomas: Everything Is Beautiful” and co-editor of the accompanying publication to discuss the artist's career and life.

Debra Force, Founder Debra Force Fine Art, as anchor for a panel on women dealers, advisers, and at auction houses.

Nonie Gadsden (MFA, Boston) on the MFA's exhibition of 20th-century women artists: "Women Take the Floor”.

Barbara Guggenheim, art advisor and partner in Guggenheim, Asher Associates, one of America’s best-known firms of art advisers. She will be on the panel of women dealers, advisors and auction houses.

Dakota Hoska, Assistant Curator, Native American Art, Denver Art Museum. She will speak on Native American women's art.

Fern Hurst, collector.

Eve Kahn,Columnist, and Author of Forever Seeing New Beauties: The Forgotten Impressionist Mary Rogers Williams, 1857-1907.

Emily Lenz, Director, D. Wigmore Fine Art.

Anna Marley, Vice President of Museum Research and Scholarship, Kenneth R. Woodcock Curator of Historical American Art, and Director of the Center for the Study of the American Artist. She will discuss "Women in Motion" and the networks of women artists working professionally in the American art world from PAFA’s founding in 1805 to the end of World War II.

Faith Ringgold, American painter and mixed media artist who will join us at ACA Galleries.

Marjorie Shelley, Sherman Fairchild Conservator in Charge of Works on Paper, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Elle Shushan, author, consultant and specialist dealer in portrait miniatures who is a consultant and catalogue contributor for The Lyman Allyn Art Museum’s forthcoming “The Way Sisters: Miniaturists of the Early Republic," on Mary Way and her role in Federalist New York art world.

Amy Torbert, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Assistant Curator of American Art, Saint Louis Art Museum.

Shannon Vittoria, Senior Research Associate, The American Wing, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She will discuss Lily Martin Spencer.

Joan Washburn, Founder, Washburn Gallery.

Christina Weyl, independent art historian, and author, The Women of Atelier 17: Modernist Printmaking in Midcentury New York (Yale University Press, 2019).

Melissa Wolfe, Curator of American Art, St. Louis Art Museum. She will spreak on the Art of Doris Lee.

Leadership funding has been provided by the Steven Alan Bennett Foundation, The Richard and Jane Manoogian Foundation and The Louis and Lena Minkoff Foundation. We gratefully acknowledge funding from ACA Galleries; Collisart LLC; D. Wigmore Fine Art; Debra Force Fine Art; Marty O’Brien; Menconi + Schoelkopf Fine Art and anonymous donors. We are deeply grateful for the media sponsorship provided by The Magazine ANTIQUES and American Fine Art Magazine, as well as from Bonham's (as of 10/10/21).

Notice of withdrawal must be made in writing to Initiatives in Art and Culture at 

333 East 57th Street, Suite 13B New York, New York 10022 or via email [email protected] prior to October 15, 2021

Program subject to change

IAC is committed to the health and safety of event participants, staff, and others with whom we will come in contact. This conference will follow current legal mandates, guidance and safety protocols for preventing the spread of COVID-19 at large gatherings issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and relevant state and local authorities as well as our host/event space. We reserve the right to determine and enforce additional reasonable health and safety requirements at our discretion, and we will abide by the requirements of all private and public venues visited during the event. Currently the Cosmopolitan Club is checking that all guests who visit the Club are fully vaccinated.

Please note The Cosmopolitan Club does have a dress code.

Caption: Alma Thomas, Red Azaleas Singing and Dancing Rock and Roll Music, 1976, Acrylic on three canvases, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC 

Host or Publisher Initiatives in Art and Culture