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Smithsonian American Art Museum

SAAM Announces Faye Raquel Gleisser as Winner of the 2025 Eldredge Prize

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is delighted to announce that Dr. Faye Raquel Gleisser, associate professor at Indiana University, has been awarded the Charles C. Eldredge Prize for her book Risk Work: Making Art and Guerrilla Tactics in Punitive America, 1967–1987 (University of Chicago Press, 2023). The annual Eldredge Prize, named in honor of the museum’s former director (1982–1988), recognizes originality and thoroughness of research, excellence of writing, and clarity of method. Single-author, book-length publications in the field of American art history appearing within the previous three calendar years are eligible. This year’s jurors were Karen Mary Davalos of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Richard Meyer of Stanford University; and Amy M. Mooney of Columbia College Chicago. The jury described Risk Work as a “gamechanger” noting that “through the lens of ‘punitive literacy’ and with bold pairings of well-known and understudied artists, Gleisser presents an original rethinking of the relational, embodied, and situated knowledge that informed artistic and performative practice in the United States from the late 1960s to the late 1980s. This turbulent period, marked by social and political revolutions, the advent of for-profit carceral institutions, and advances in surveillance technology, resulted in a profound expansion of policing and prosecution. Gleisser persuasively argues that the police state is a structural field that shapes artists’ creative decisions and that the artist’s race, class and gender inform their punitive literacy, which in turn shapes their art.” The trio also commended Gleisser’s interdisciplinary approach that “draws together art history, performance studies, black feminism, queer of color critique, legal studies, and carceral studies, to show how guerilla art between 1967 and 1987 requires attention to punitive literacy.” Shortlisted for the 2025 prize were: Katie Anania, Out of Paper: Drawing, Environment, and the Body in 1960s America (Yale University Press, 2024); Emilie Boone, A Nimble Arc: James Van Der Zee and Photography (Duke University Press, 2023); Lisa Gail Collins, Stitching Love and Loss: A Gee’s Bend Quilt (University of Washington Press, 2023); and Tatiana Reinoza, Reclaiming the Americas: Latinx Art and the Politics of Territory (University of Texas Press, 2023). In conjunction with the award, Gleisser will present the Eldredge Prize virtual lecture on Thursday, December 11, 2025. Please register for it at events.blackthorn.io/5f4ZMUx7/5a2bVR21ScD.

October 14, 2025
Smithsonian American Art Museum

Smithsonian American Art Museum Announces 2025–26 Fellowship Appointments

SAAM will welcome twenty fellows for the 2025–26 academic year. Among this year’s cohort are four senior scholars, two postdoctoral fellows, twelve predoctoral fellows, and two Smithsonian Artist Research Fellows. Utilizing the Smithsonian’s vast collections, they will research the impact of music on the visual arts, works of craft produced by Black artists and artisans, artist-built environments in landscapes slated for urban development, and more. A directory of appointees that includes their project abstracts is available at https://americanart.si.edu/search/fellows?content_type=fellow&begin_year=2025. Diane Ahn, SAAM-APAC-Terra Predoctoral Fellow in Asian American Art, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Allison Bigelow, George Gurney Senior Fellow, University of Notre Dame Rose Bishop, Big Ten Academic Alliance/Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellow, University of Southern California Kim Bobier, Smithsonian Institution Postdoctoral Fellow, Pratt Institute Matthew Bowman, Wyeth Foundation Predoctoral Fellow, University of Iowa Gabrielle Christiansen, Douglass Foundation Predoctoral Fellow, Northwestern University O.M. Comstock, SAAM Predoctoral Fellow in American Craft and Big Ten Academic Alliance Smithsonian Fellow, University of Minnesota Jesse Dritz, Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellow, Boston University Tatiana Flores, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Senior Fellow, University of Virginia David R. Harper, Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow, School of the Art Institute of Chicago Janina López, Will Barnet Foundation Predoctoral Fellow, University of Pittsburgh Julia Modes, Audrey Flack Short-Term Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Arts and Design Karlsruhe Andrew Hansung Park, Big Ten Academic Alliance/Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellow, University of California, Los Angeles Taylor Rose Payer, Betsy James Wyeth Predoctoral Fellow in Native American Art, University of Minnesota Casey Reas, Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow, University of California, Los Angeles Clara Royer, Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellow, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne Joseph Semkiu, Big Ten Academic Alliance/Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellow, University of Southern California Hampton Smith, Joe and Wanda Corn Predoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nicole Woods, William H. Truettner Senior Fellow, Loyola Marymount University Allison Young, Patricia and Phillip Frost Senior Fellow, Louisiana State University and A&M College, Baton Rouge Since 1970, SAAM has provided 809 scholars with financial aid, unparalleled research resources, and a world-class network of colleagues. Former fellows now occupy positions in prominent academic and cultural institutions across North and South America, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, and Europe. Learn more at https://americanart.si.edu/research/fellowships.

October 7, 2025