75th Anniversary

American Symposium

American Visions: A Symposium Celebrating the Reinstallation of the American Galleries at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Saturday, April 18, 2009

In celebration of the reinstallation of American paintings, sculpture and decorative arts, this symposium will feature eight noted voices in the field of American art history responding to some of the greatest treasures in the Museum’s collection.

The scholars' talks will focus on objects created at pivotal points in America’s history, and in the nation’s important centers of artistic production. Each talk will address the works in their larger context, weaving stories of history, style and innovation.

The symposium will shed new light on The Nelson-Atkins impressive collection, and elucidate the Museum’s exciting new presentation of these masterpieces.

Please Register by April 10. Registration fees include day long parking in the Museum garage, admission to all sessions and exclusive access to the American Galleries.

$15 Museum members
$20 General registration
$10 Faculty and students with ID

Lunch options
An optional box lunch is available for $13. Please indicate your choice of sandwich when you register.

Rozzelle Court Restaurant is open for lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

To register by phone, call 816.751.1ART

Click here to download an informational flyer.

Accomodations
The Marriot Country Club Plaza is offering a limited number of rooms at a special rate for Symposium attendees. Please call 1.816.531.3000 for reservations.

Schedule and Speakers

9 a.m.
Check-in, Bloch Lobby

Morning Session
9:30 a.m.
Welcome
Marc Wilson, Menefee D. & Mary Louise Blackwell Director/CEO

9:45 a.m.
Remarks
Margaret Conrads, Samuel Sosland Senior Curator of American Art

10:00 a.m.
Keynote Address
Birthday Bouquet!
Wanda Corn, Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor Emerita of Art History, Stanford University

10:30 a.m.
Hall from the Hooper House
Peter M. Kenny, Ruth Bigelow Wriston Curator of American Decorative Arts and Administrator of The American Wing, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

11 a.m.
Raphaelle Peale’s Still Life with Liqueur and Fruit
William H. Gerdts, Professor Emeritus of Art History, Graduate School, City University of New York

11:30 a.m.
Thomas Cole’s The Mill, Sunset
Linda Ferber, Senior Art Historian and Museum Director Emerita, New-York Historical Society

12– 2 p.m.
Lunch Break and access to the American Galleries

Afternoon Session
2 p.m.
Remarks
Catherine Futter, The Helen Jane & R. Hugh “Pat” Uhlmann Curator of Decorative Arts

2:15 p.m.
Silver by the Gorham Manufacturing Company
Christopher Monkhouse, Eloise W. Martin Curator and Chairman, Department of European Decorative Arts, Art Institute of Chicago

2:45 p.m.
George Bellow’s Frankie, the Organ Boy
Virginia M. Mecklenburg, Senior Curator, Smithsonian American Art Museum

3:15 p.m.
A Bookcase by Charles Summer and Henry Mather Greene
Wendy Kaplan, Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

3:45 p.m.
Georgia O’Keeffe’s Apple Blossoms
Charles Eldredge, Hall Distinguished Professor of American Art and Culture, University of Kansas

4:15-5 p.m.
Informal questions and discussion in the American Galleries

Symposium schedule subject to change

American Visions: A Symposium Celebrating the Reinstallation of the American Galleries at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is generously funded by Gary Randall Smith.