Release Date: October 1, 2020

New Two-Year Postdoctoral Fellowship Gives Scholarship and Teaching Opportunities to Emerging Art Historians

CASVA members Rachel Grace Newman, Annie G. Miller, Megan Driscoll, and Steven Nelson with Harry Cooper, Curator and Head of Modern and Contemporary Art, discussing William Edmondson's Schoolteacher (1935, limestone, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Corcoran Collection [Gift of David and Renee McKee], 2015.19.3920).

Washington, DC—The National Gallery of Art's Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) has announced the creation of the Beinecke Postdoctoral Fellowship—an appointment for two consecutive academic years. This fellowship will be offered every other year and was made possible through the generosity of Frederick W. Beinecke and his family in response to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's 75th Anniversary Endowment Challenge Grant.

During the first year, the Beinecke Postdoctoral Fellow will carry out research and writing for publication while residing in Washington, with access to the Gallery's collection, library, and image collections as well as the Library of Congress and other regional research libraries and collections. In the second academic year, while continuing research and writing in residence, the Beinecke Postdoctoral Fellow will teach one course by arrangement at a neighboring university. While this fellowship supports research in the history, theory, and criticism of the visual arts of any period or culture, CASVA particularly encourages applications in underrepresented fields.

"In this moment of fewer opportunities for recent PhDs in art history and related fields, we are especially grateful for the opportunity to establish a new fellowship that enables them to carry out groundbreaking scholarship and to gain valuable teaching experience," says Steven Nelson, dean of the Center.

The inaugural Beinecke Postdoctoral Fellowship will be awarded for the period September 2021–August 2023. Applications are open now and due by November 15, 2020.

For more information on the Beinecke Postdoctoral Fellowship as well as details to apply, please visit www.nga.gov/research/casva/fellowships.html.

About CASVA

Since its inception in 1979, CASVA has promoted the study of the history, theory, and criticism of art, architecture, and urbanism through the formation of a community of scholars. A variety of private sources support the program of fellowships, and the appointments are ratified by the Gallery's Board of Trustees. In selecting its members, CASVA seeks a diverse pool of applicants in the visual arts.

CASVA currently supports the Andrew W. Mellon Professor, a two-year appointment of a midcareer scholar; the Kress-Beinecke Professor, an appointment for one academic year of a distinguished scholar; the Edmond J. Safra Visiting Professor, a six-month appointment of a scholar who advances his or her own research on subjects associated with the Gallery's permanent collection; and senior fellows, visiting senior fellows, postdoctoral fellows, and predoctoral fellows. A board of advisors, composed of seven or eight art historians appointed to rotating terms, serves as a selection committee to review all fellowship applications.

Press Contact:
Christina Brown, (202) 842-6598 or [email protected]