Symposium: Stradanus at Cooper Hewitt

November 6-7, 2025
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
New York

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum will be hosting the symposium “Stradanus at Cooper Hewitt” as the culmination of its multi-year Stradanus Project on November 6-7, 2025.

The museum is home to 143 sheets of drawings and inscriptions by the Netherlandish artist Johannes Stradanus (1523-1605), also known as Jan van der Straet. With support from the Getty’s Paper Project Initiative and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Collections Program, Cooper Hewitt embarked on The Stradanus Project, an effort to conserve, research, and digitize Stradanus’s drawings, which served as preparatory designs for his engravings.

In 2021-2022, Cooper Hewitt conducted a conservation survey of all of its Stradanus sketches. Based on this information, the team selected 39 sheets for lining removal and treatment, which was completed in 2024. As a result of conservation work and research, drawings and inscriptions that have been obscured for more than a century have been newly revealed.

Over two days, 14 curators, scholars, and conservators will present new research on Stradanus. In addition to these presentations, there will be viewings of Cooper Hewitt’s Stradanus holdings in the Drue Heinz Study Center for Drawings and Prints.

To register for the symposium and explore the full schedule of presentations and abstracts, please visit The Stradanus Project webpage:
https://www.cooperhewitt.org/the-stradanus-project

Cooper Hewitt’s Stradanus Project is made possible with support from the Getty Foundation through The Paper Project initiative; and received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program. Additional support for the Stradanus at Cooper Hewitt symposium has been provided by the Tavolozza Foundation

This exhibition is a collaborative effort by five curators around the state of Kansas to raise awareness of the women artists who worked tirelessly to keep the visual arts alive during the decade of the Great Depression, while enlarging opportunities for women artists who came after.

Elizabeth Seaton of the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University (Manhattan, KS) presents the story of Sue Jean Covacevich (1905-1998) who spent the 1930s primarily in Mexico and was offered the chance to study with Diego Rivera (1886-1957), and brought her mural-making experience back to Winfield, Kansas. Kara Heitz, scholar of Kansas New Deal art at the Kansas City Art Institute, focuses on the Topeka printmaker Mary Huntoon (1896-1970) who was in charge of the WPA’s Federal Art Project for the state of Kansas. Bill North of the Clara Hatton Center (Lindsborg, KS), shows the breadth of study of all the arts –painting, printmaking, ceramics, weaving, metalsmithing, and bookbinding—that Clara Anna Hatton (1901-1991) undertook while teaching at the University of Kansas and then brought to Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, to build up the school’s art department. Mike Brotherton of Labette Community College (Parsons, KS) has studied all the New Deal program print series Margaret Whittemore (1897-1983) created to celebrate the landmarks and natural beauties of the state. Cori Sherman North of the Sandzén Gallery highlights the career of Anna E. Keener (1895-1982) who was an early student of Birger Sandzén (1871-1954) but developed a more experimental body of work with her New Mexico students, and the work of Norma Bassett Hall (181889-1957), charter member of the Prairie Print Makers society that was established in Sandzén’s home studio in December of 1930.

Helen Frankenthaler (American, 1928–2011) began printmaking in 1961, working across lithography, woodcut, and etching for the next fifty years. Frankenthaler is known for her abstract paintings and especially her signature “soak-stain” technique—allowing paint to sit, spread, and pool on untreated canvas. She brought this same sensibility, what she described as a “pouring, flooding, spilling, bleeding one,” to works on paper.

While printmaking is often characterized by precision and control, Frankenthaler’s prints allow for chance encounters between pigment and surface—unintentional effects that emphasize the agency and alchemy of materials. The exhibition focuses on her print practice and calls attention to the unpredictability, chance, and accident in Frankenthaler’s work.

The exhibition includes works by other artists in The Block’s collection who have similarly embraced chance, accident, or aesthetic surprise in their artworks. It brings together a sampling of lithographs, drawings, and watercolors by Frankenthaler’s friends and colleagues—Joan Mitchell, Grace Hartigan, and Robert Motherwell—and many other artists from The Block’s permanent collection.

In 2023, The Block Museum was one of ten university museums to receive artwork as part of the Frankenthaler Print Initiative. The exhibition features this extraordinary gift and brings it into conversation with prints in the collection.

For millennia, wine has played a significant role not only in the human diet but also in cultural myths, rituals, and festivities. As a result, wine—its ingredients, making, drinking, and effects on the human body and mind—has been a constant muse for artistic creation. The exhibition In Vino Veritas (In Wine, Truth), a phrase coined by the Roman polymath Pliny the Elder, celebrates the presence and meaning of wine in prints, drawings, textiles, and objects made in Europe between 1450 and 1800. Drawn from the museum’s collection, more than 70 works by artists from throughout Europe explore wine’s myths, symbols, and stories. These images reveal how diverse cultures and religions ascribed meaning and transformational properties to the so-called nectar of the gods.

The University of Mary Washington and the American Historical Print Collectors Society present:
Lasting Legacy: A Celebration of American Historical Prints through the Career of Wendy Joan Shadwell (UMW '63)

Thursday, September 25, 5:00 p.m.

Hurley Convergence Center (HCC), Digital Auditorium (Rm. 136) on the campus of the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Reception with refreshments following.

Please join us for a conversation with Clayton Lewis and Allison Stagg about the important role of popular American historical prints in connection with the career and philanthropy of Wendy Shadwell, alumna of Mary Washington ('63), Curator of Prints Emerita at the New York Historical Society, and President of the American Historical Print Collectors Society (1998 - 2001).

Participants:

Clayton Lewis | President, American Historical Print Collectors Society and Curator Emeritus, William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan

Allison Stagg (’02, Art History) | Researcher and lecturer in the Department of Architecture and Art History at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, member AHPCS

Moderator: Julia DeLancey | Professor of Art History, Department of Cultural and Philosophical Inquiry, University of Mary Washington

Sponsored by Department of Cultural and Philosophical Inquiry, UMW Galleries, the Visiting Artists and Scholars Program (Department of Studio Art), and the Wendy J. Shadwell '63 Program Endowment in Art History in collaboration with the American Historical Print Collectors Society.

This event is free. Please register by email at : clayclem@umich.edu. Deadline for registration: September 15.

If you have any questions about this event, please contact Clayton Lewis (clayclem@umich.edu)

Also, please consider joining us for :

A tour of Belmont, American artist Gari Melchers’ Home and Studio
Thursday, September 25, 1:00 pm

Belmont is the spectacular home and studio of American Naturalist artist Julius Garibaldi (Gari) Melchers (1860-1932). This 27-acre estate features the historic home, art studio and galleries, tours, gardens, historic buildings and several miles of walking trails. Gari Melchers Home and Studio serves as a resource for studying the work of a major American artist and serves as an art center for the people of the Fredericksburg area.

We will meet at Belmont at 1:00 pm for a tour starting at 1:30. Admission is $10

Location: 224 Washington Street, Falmouth, VA 22405

Parking is available on site. Website: www.garimelchers.org

Please register by email at : clayclem@umich.edu. Deadline for registration: September 15.
Tour space is limited to 12 people

This fall, the Vanderbilt University Museum of Art invites the public to look at works on paper in unexpected ways through "Paper Backs: Hidden Stories of European Prints from the Vanderbilt University Museum of Art Collection." The exhibition encourages visitors to encounter 60 prints dating between 1530 and 1915 from multiple vantage points and discover a rich ecosystem of works on paper that includes but also goes beyond the pristine masterpieces typically displayed in museums.

The exhibition emphasizes two sets of interconnected stories. The first section, Paper Tracks, traces the movement of prints between artists and collectors over centuries, showing the intermediary role played by dealers as well as the disruptive impact of historic events such as war. The second section, Paper Hacks, focuses on the prints’ uses (and abuses) by prior owners, demonstrating the changing value of paper images over time. To tell these stories and loop audiences into art historical detective work, the exhibition highlights physical aspects of works on paper that are often hidden, such as stamped marks, offhand doodles, and found materials used in the previous conservation and presentation of prints. Visitors will be able to study selected prints in double-sided displays, while other prints will be shown with their backs facing out. An online version of the exhibition (accessible through the museum's website and going live on September 2) will allow users to toggle between both sides of each print.

The exhibition is primarily drawn from VUMA’s recently rediscovered collection of more than 6,400 European and American prints dating from 1500 to 1915. The collection was assembled by the New York-based Sullivan family and given to the George Peabody College for Teachers and the Brooklyn Museum between 1916 and 1950. Long relegated to storage, the prints reemerged during campus construction in 2023. Their recovery coincided with a renewed investment in VUMA’s collections, including its first full inventory and a new public-facing online collection database.

Visitors will encounter well-known and obscure printmakers and collectors active from the Renaissance through World War I. Many of the prints in Paper Backs will be displayed for the first time. Notable debuts include: a printed headpiece meant to be cut out and worn at a Renaissance wedding (it was later salvaged by an unidentified collector, who pasted it to the back of a nineteenth-century map); an etching by Elisabetta Sirani (1638–1665) that features an elegant ink sketch of a sarcophagus on the sheet’s back; and an enigmatic 1530s engraving formerly owned by the first president of the British Royal Academy of Arts, Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792). Several large sheets of paper featuring prints glued down by the American collector George Hammond Sullivan (1859–1956) will allow visitors to see how prints were stored and enjoyed before entering museum collections. Fifteen prints from the former collection of the Italian artist Giovanni Locarno (active ca. 1800–1862), meanwhile, will collectively offer a window into how artists assembled and used their print collections in the era just before photography took over many of prints’ previous functions. VUMA’s collection includes more than 100 prints featuring Locarno’s distinctive stamp.

In addition to European prints, Paper Backs will also feature a painting by Charlotte Lentrein de Senezcourt (1844–1914), an Edo-period Japanese woodblock print (displayed alongside a 1915 woodcut by fashion illustrator and textile designer Alberto Fabio Lorenzi (1880–1969) depicting a World War I battle scene made to imitate a Japanese fan, and a seventeenth-century album of prints by Johann Wilhelm Bauer formerly owned by Giovanni Locarno, which the university's Special Collections recently acquired.

Nexo Entre Raíces | Nexus Between Roots brings together thirty-three contemporary artists working on either side of the US-Mexico border. Through powerful and timely prints, this exhibition explores how our cultural roots shape and define us.

Organized by artist Marco Sánchez, Nexo Entre Raíces has traveled to the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Kent State University, and the El Paso Museum of Art and will be shown for the first time in California at The Turner.

Reporting to the Director of the School of Art, the Gallery Director/Curator is administratively responsible for the overall operations of the School of Art Gallery, including activities, programming, financial management, and supervision of gallery staff. The Gallery Director/Curator is responsible for ensuring that the research and focus of exhibitions, collections, and events reflect the needs of the School of Art and align with the strategic goals of the University of Manitoba. The programming of the Gallery should make a significant contribution to the contemporary culture and the art history of Manitoba and Canada, representing its diversity, with particular attention to ensuring that Indigenous voices and cultures are represented in the Gallery's activities.

The Gallery Director/Curator is responsible for ensuring that contemporary museological standards are applied to the production of temporary exhibitions as well as to the care, management, exhibition and expansion of the School of Art's Permanent Collection, through exhibitions, research, and collections management. The Gallery Director/Curator will ensure the ongoing progress of the digitization of the Gallery's collection and the creation of a collections database available to the professoriate and the public.

The Gallery Director/Curator is expected to work with faculty and gallery staff to ensure that the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions are used to support the teaching of art history, curatorial studies, and studio. A core responsibility of the Gallery Directory/Curator is to support teaching at the School of Art.

The responsibilities of the Gallery Director/Curator encompass research, programming, collections management, education, and administration. The Gallery Director/Curator is responsible for organizing and producing exhibitions, as well as their ancillary educational programs and events. Exhibition production includes but is not restricted to research, grant writing, administration (general production, advertising and promotion, catalogue production, installation, hiring of guest contributors), education, extension, and partnership with other Canadian cultural institutions on collaborative projects. Collections management includes but is not restricted to the acquisition, documentation, preservation, exhibition, and interpretation of the School of Art Permanent Collection, as well as assistance with the University of Manitoba Collections - a separate entity within the University. Research in this context is understood as supporting the curatorial needs and purposes of the presentation of artworks and curatorial projects that serve the mandate of the Gallery, and as supporting the use of the Permanent Collection in the teaching of art history, curatorial studies, and studio.

The successful candidate will hold, at minimum, a Master's degree in Art History, Museum Studies, Curatorial Studies, Visual Arts, or another similar program, combined with substantial experience in curatorial work, catalogue publishing, grant writing, collections management, museum education, and administration within a public or university art gallery.

Application materials should include a letter of interest and curriculum vitae. Three letters of reference should be sent directly by the referees. Canadian and permanent residents should clearly indicate their citizenship or residency status in their cover letter or CV. Review of applications will begin on September 19, 2025 and continue until the position is filled. Materials should be sent to Sarah Rout at Sarah.Rout@umanitoba.ca.

Please click the link for more information.

Staged in conjunction with the Vanderbilt University Museum of Art’s Fall 2025 exhibition "Paper Backs: Hidden Stories of European Prints from the VUMA Collection," this virtual symposium will bring together curators who oversee collections of European prints at museums spread across the South. Each curator will give a lightning-style, 10-minute presentation about their museum’s pre-1915 European print holdings, with the goal of making these collections better-known amongst local, regional, and global audiences of both amateurs and professionals. The symposium also seeks to initiate a collective discussion about how and why European prints often served as catalysts for the formation of institutional art collections in a region with limited public art infrastructure before the turn of the twentieth century. How did old master and early modernist European prints in particular support various progressive and post-World War I- era agendas? What challenges and opportunities face the study and promotion of such objects in the South today?

Participants:

Dr. Sarah Cartwright
Chief Curator and Ulla R. Searing Curator of Collections, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Florida State University
Sarasota, FL

Dr. Dana E. Cowen
Sheldon Peck Curator for European and American Art before 1950, Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC

Dr. Maggie Crosland
The Fariss Gambrill Lynn and Henry Sharpe Lynn Curator of European Art, Birmingham Museum of Art
Birmingham, AL

Dr. Nelda Damiano
Pierre Daura Curator of European Art, Georgia Museum, University of Georgia
Athens, GA

Dr. Alyssa M. Hughes
Works on Paper Specialist for the Frank Raysor Collection, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Richmond, VA

Dr. Courtney Wilder
Sullivan Collection Curator, Vanderbilt University Museum of Art
Nashville, TN

For more than thirty years, the American Historical Print Collectors Society (AHPCS) has recognized significant scholarship in the field of American historical prints with its Ewell L. Newman Book Award. In 2023 the AHPCS added two new awards to recognize shorter works published in journals and edited volumes, including exhibition catalogues and digital formats. The Essay award is named in honor of Lois W. Newman, a founding member of the Society, who continued as a generous supporter of the publication awards after her husband’s death.

Each annual cycle typically results in one book award in the amount of $2,000 and two essay or article awards in the amount of $750 each. One of the essay awards usually will be designated for the best article published in the AHPCS journal Imprint, as selected by the Newman Award Committee. Awards are not necessarily presented each year but are determined by the quality of available submissions. Occasionally, there may be multiple winners in an individual year.

2025 Ewell L. Newman Book Award

Tatiana Reinoza, Reclaiming the Americas: Latinx Art and the Politics of Territory.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 2023. xii, 272 pp. Illus (29 in color); bibliography, index. $34.95 paper.

This important study, a significant scholarly achievement in the field of American historical prints, is centered on the production, iconography, and social role of prints by Latinx artists in North America from the 1960s into the 21st century. These contemporary works challenge the past practices represented in maps, charts, and views created since the sixteenth century. Referencing these earlier images, the author addresses printmaking’s historical role and complicity in European colonialization. In this new narrative, specific historical maps and prints have become points of departure for new graphic works that may reconfigure the older images.
The author explores the importance of printmaking as a medium and also acknowledges a complex relationship between contemporary Latinx printmaking and American prints over the centuries since the first contact between Europeans and the Americas.



2025 Lois W. Newman Essay Awards
Marina Wells, “Printing Whaling Masculinity in A Shoal of Sperm Whale,” The New England Quarterly (2024) Vol. 97, No.4, pp. 551-576.

The article’s strong focus on the visual culture of 19th-century whaling references artistic conventions, experiences of violence, and white American masculinity. The author discusses two prints depicting whaling scenes produced from designs by Cornelius B. Hulsart, a former whaleman, who drew upon conventional prints of naval battles rather than his own direct experience with bodily injury amid the dangers of whaling. She offers a deep and thoughtful analysis of the imagery in relation to gender, whaling, disability (to some degree), other images and texts, and the spread of such images.

The AHPCS is a non-profit corporation that encourages the collection, preservation, study, and exhibition of prints depicting or reflecting North American history and culture, made either in America or elsewhere. For further information about the Society, please visit the website at https://ahpcs.org. A list of all Newman Publication Award winners to date can be found at https://ahpcs.org/newman-award-winners/ and https://ahpsc.org/essay-award-winners