What does it mean to display art through the lens of national identity and history? To mark its reopening, the Yale Center for British Art convenes “Art, Museum, Nation,” a symposium to critically interrogate the concept of nationhood in contemporary practices of art exhibition, interpretation, and acquisition.
In roundtable discussions, leading art historians, curators, and directors from the Art Gallery of Ontario, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and National Gallery, London, among others, will explore how art museums can revise, think beyond, and reinvigorate national frameworks. Among many questions, the symposium will ask: How have expressions of national identity influenced the civic and public role of art museums in both explicit and implicit ways? How might art museums contend with the fluidity of borders and foreground ideas of migration and diaspora? What can art museums do to better acknowledge the traces of colonialism and empire embedded in national collections?
The symposium is free and open to the public. It will be held in the Lecture Hall at the Yale Center for British Art and will be livestreamed.
The Yale Center for British Art is pleased to offer a travel stipend for curators and museum professionals who wish to attend this symposium in person and are traveling from within the Boston–New York rail corridor or an equivalent driving distance (approximately 125 miles). If you are facing particular financial barriers to participating and wish to take advantage of this funding, please email your name, position, and travel details to ycba.research@yale.edu before Monday, April 21.
Funding is limited and applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so apply early!
We look forward to welcoming you to the Yale Center for British Art for this exciting symposium.
Register
To join us for this event, please register here. Registration is recommended but not required for this event.
Schedule
9:30–9:35 am
Welcome and opening remarks
Rachel Chatalbash, Deputy Director for Academic Affairs, Education, and Research, YCBA
9:35–9:45 am
Introduction: Reopening the Yale Center for British Art
Martina Droth, Paul Mellon Director, YCBA
9:45–10:45 am
Keynote: Art, Museum, Nation: Building Collections Today
Moderator: Lucinda Lax, Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, YCBA
This keynote conversation asks how museums can serve the needs of both local and international constituents. What does it mean to present a global collection in a national context? Conversely, what should the mission of a national museum be in a globalized world? YCBA curator Lucinda Lax leads a discussion on building and stewarding heritage art collections in the twenty-first century.
Keynote speakers:
- Andrea Bayer, Deputy Director for Collections and Administration at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Christine Riding, Director of Collections and Research at the National Gallery, London
10:45–11 am
Comfort break
11 am – 12 pm
Session 1: Art, Museum, Nation in Exhibitions and Display
Moderator: Tim Barringer, Paul Mellon Professor of the History of Art, Yale University
In this session, curators based in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States reflect on the potential of exhibitions to advance inclusive and critical definitions of national artistic canons. How are curators using museum display to alter or challenge established ideas of Canadian, British, and American art?
Discussants:
- Patricia Allerston, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, National Galleries of Scotland
- Horace D. Ballard, Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Curator of American Art, Harvard Art Museums
- Julie Crooks, Curator, Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora, Art Gallery of Ontario
12–1:30 pm
Lunch break
1:30–2:30 pm
Session 2: Art, Museum, Nation in the History of Art and Museums
Moderator: Sria Chatterjee, Head of Research Initiatives, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
This conversation looks to the past, addressing how Enlightenment-era ideas of progress and race shaped the construction of public museums in North America and Europe. Discussants will consider the impact of imperialism and scientific racism on modern museum practice and ask what institutions can do to acknowledge and combat these forces.
Discussants:
- Nana Adusei-Poku, Assistant Professor of History of Art and African American Studies, Yale University
- Andrew McClellan, Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Tufts University
- Marina Tyquiengco, Ellyn McColgan Associate Curator of Native American Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
2:30–2:45 pm
Comfort break
2:45–3:45 pm
Session 3: Art, Museum, Nation: New Futures
Moderator: Anni A. Pullagura, Margaret and Terry Stent Associate Curator of American Art, High Museum of Art
Building on the previous session, the symposium’s closing discussion looks to the future of “the nation” in the art museum. How can the lenses of national identity and history be mobilized toward new and productive ends? What other interpretive frameworks can museums use to complement and complicate ideas of nationality and nationhood?
Discussants:
- Mark Mitchell, Holcombe T. Green Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture, Yale University Art Gallery
- Stephanie Sparling Williams, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of American Art, Brooklyn Museum
- Linsey Young, Independent Curator and PhD Candidate, Royal College of Art
3:45–4 pm
Closing remarks
Kishwar Rizvi, Robert Lehman Professor in the History of Art, Islamic Art and Architecture, Yale University
4–5 pm
Reception
Top image
Canaletto, Westminster Bridge, with the Lord Mayor's Procession on the Thames, 1747, oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
