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As part of Lunder Institute @, its latest initiative, the Colby College Museum of Art’s Lunder Institute for American Art has invited thought leaders at six of the nation’s most prominent art institutions to engage publicly with a single question: What is the state of American art?

Starting in February, the Lunder Institute will sponsor programs at the de Young Museum, San Francisco, The Broad, Los Angeles, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City. 

“Practice and methodology are core interests to the Lunder Institute, and that interest extends beyond individuals — artists, scholars, curators, etc. — within the field of American art; it also extends to institutional practices,” said Erica Wall, Director of the Lunder Institute. 

“As a think tank for the field and part of the Colby Museum — one of the leading academic art museums — the Lunder Institute seeks to provide opportunities and resources for institutions to engage with questions related to American art.”

Each institution was asked to respond to the question about the state of American art by having internal conversations across departments and sharing what emerged from these through a public program. This initiative offers space and time to institutions to consider, discuss, and innovatively respond to some of the pressing issues, opportunities, and challenges within the field of American art in relation to their own institution, collection, and location within the United States. Importantly, this work also fosters necessary dialogue within and between institutions. 

A primary goal of this initiative is to promote transparency in the field of American art, beyond public-facing exhibitions and scholarship, and to extend that process across each organization, and share a product of that engagement with the public. 

“These convenings will promote discourse in an open and fertile space leading toward innovation, new areas of exploration, and possible answers to questions that continue to arise around what American art is and what impacts its production, its scholarship, and its research,” said Jacqueline Terrassa, Carolyn Muzzy director of the Colby Museum. 

The schedule for each of the six remote Lunder Institute @ programs:

• Lunder Institute @ the de Young Museum, San Francisco, Feb. 10, 2024

• Lunder Institute @ The Broad, Los Angeles, March 2, 2024

• Lunder Institute @ Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, March 7, 2024

• Lunder Institute @ the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, April 7, 2024

• Lunder Institute @ Museum of Fine Arts Boston, May 23, 2024

• Lunder Institute @ the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, in September of 2024 (date to be determined).