at home: Paul Mellon Lectures
Established in 1994, this lecture series was named in honor of Paul Mellon (Yale College Class of 1929), the philanthropist, art collector, and founder of both the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA) in New Haven and the Paul Mellon Centre for British Art Studies (PMC) in London. Coorganized by the two institutions, the biennial lectures were traditionally delivered in person by a specialist in British art at the both the National Gallery in London and the Yale Center for British Art.
This year’s series, entitled The Museum and Gallery Today, is exclusively online and features individual talks from some of the world’s most distinguished museum and gallery directors. The lectures are presented as free live webinars.
About this program
Opened in 1941, the National Gallery of Art is an institution of intriguing paradox. Founded by the millionaire Andrew Mellon, father of Paul Mellon, to educate a monolithic populace and to bestow contemporary ideas of good taste, the offering was in fact a grand populist gesture, a true gift to the nation. What does it mean to be and to become a nation’s art museum during a time of immense global volatility and complexity? Kaywin Feldman explores the National Gallery’s unique but ever-changing purpose as the national art museum and the challenges and opportunities of transformation along with the American nation.
About Kaywin Feldman
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Feldman received a BA in classical archeology from the University of Michigan, an MA in museum studies from the Institute of Archaeology at the University of London, and an MA in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. In 2019, she became the fifth Director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and is the first woman to hold this distinguished position. Prior to joining the Gallery, Feldman led the Minneapolis Institute of Art as its Nivin and Duncan MacMillan Director and President. She is a past president of the of the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and past chair of the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). Feldman has lectured widely and published numerous articles on reinventing the museum for the twenty-first century.
