The Lunder Institute for American Art exists at the crossroads of scholarship and creative production, seeking to challenge received ideas and expand interpretive communities in the fields of American art history and practice. Our programs, partnerships, and initiatives forge connections and opportunities for scholars and living artists that also benefit and enrich the Colby College community.
FELLOWS
The Lunder Institute supports scholarly and creative production by awarding fellowships to emerging, mid-career, and senior practitioners whose work aligns with its goal of expanding the contours of American art. Lunder Institute fellowships are flexible by design, with the particulars of each engagement planned in collaboration with fellows to best suit the needs of our partners. Lunder Institute fellowships include remote and residential appointments, though all fellows engage with the Colby College community through onsite visits, residencies, academic engagement, public programs, and mining the Colby College Museum of Art’s collection. Lunder Institute fellowships foster experimentation, growth, and research at all stages of artistic and scholarly practice by providing space, time, and resources for fellows to incubate leading work in the field.
SUMMER THINK TANK
Founded in 2023, the Lunder Institute Summer Think Tank is an annual initiative that brings together artists, scholars, museum professionals, and culture-bearers in a fertile space to engage in dialogue. A conversation-based program, the Summer Think Tank raises pressing questions in the field of American art, with the aim of advancing new ideas, methodologies, and relationship building. As an incubator for research and practice, the Summer Think Tank provides a platform for fostering, documenting, and sharing the exchange of knowledge. Though Summer Think Tank conversations are not open to the general public, each discussion is recorded and preserved in our oral history archive for researchers to access.
LUNDER INSTITUTE @
Practice and methodology are core interests to the Lunder Institute, and that interest extends beyond individuals—artists, scholars, curators, etc.—within the field of American art; it also extends to institutional practices. As a think tank for the field, and part of a leading academic art museum, the Lunder Institute seeks to provide opportunities and resources for institutions to engage with questions related to American art.
The Lunder Institute has invited six prominent art institutions across the nation to partner to respond to the question “What is the state of American Art,” as part of its new initiative, Lunder Institute @.
A primary goal of this initiative is to promote transparency in the field of American art, beyond public-facing exhibitions and scholarship, and to extend that process across each organization, and share a product of that engagement with the public. Learn more.
Special Projects and Partnerships
Throughout its history, the Lunder Institute for American Art has organized a variety of special projects, events, and initiatives in partnership with other institutions and key collaborators. Learn more about some of these initiatives.
