This convening marks the first time the symposium—held biennially since 2010—will be hosted in Maine, and collaboratively across three of the state’s premier art institutions. The symposium will draw on Maine’s rich artistic history as it explores the nation’s complex visual legacy during its semiquincentennial.

A Comprehensive Program of Scholarship and Engagement

The 2026 program features a diverse range of topics designed to challenge and expand the field of American art history. Highlights include:

Transforming Museums Across the Dawnland: The symposium opens at the Portland Museum of Art with a roundtable featuring artists and curators. This session sets a collaborative tone for the event, exploring how regional institutions are reimagining their roles and responsibilities within Indigenous homelands.
Themed Presentations and Roundtables: Across three days and three venues, participants will engage with a broad range of critical topics. Sessions will investigate Indigenous histories and archival temporalities, environmental construction and destruction, racial geographies, Jewish experiences in American art, disability studies, the evolving definitions of national identity and borders, and more.
Platforms for Emerging Scholars: In keeping with the symposium’s commitment to the future of the field, dedicated Lightning Rounds at both Colby College and Bowdoin College will showcase the work of the next generation of art historians. These sessions provide a vital stage for both graduate and undergraduate students to share their research alongside established professionals.
Gallery Talks: A new feature of the 2026 symposium will be object-based gallery talks that highlight the rich collections of the host museums.

In addition to the core sessions, attendees will have access to collateral programming on Thursday, September 24, and Sunday, September 27. This programming includes guided tours of exhibitions at the Portland Museum of Art as well as excursions to the Winslow Homer Studio at Prout’s Neck, the Victoria Mansion in Portland, and several arts institutions in Rockland, such as the Farnsworth Art Museum and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art.

Registration is now officially open: $60 for non-student members of AHAA; $35 for student members. Attendees are encouraged to visit www.ahaaonline.org/page/symposium to view the full schedule and secure their attendance. AHAA membership is required to register.

Key Dates:

May 15: Registration opens and travel grant applications become available.
June 19: Deadline for symposium travel grant applications.
September 10: Registration closes.

To facilitate the statewide nature of the event, free chartered buses will transport attendees from Portland to Waterville on Friday and to Brunswick on Saturday. Participants must indicate their intent to use the chartered buses during the registration process.

The Ninth Biennial AHAASymposium is co-chaired by Jessamine Batario, Linde Family Foundation Curator of Academic Engagement, Colby College Museum of Art, and Tanya Sheehan, Ellerton M. and Edith K. Jette Professor of Art; Humanities Division Chair; and Chair of the Department of Science, Technology and Society, Colby College.

For more information, contact ahaamaine@gmail.com.

Exhibitions on View

Symposium participants will have the opportunity to engage with significant exhibitions across the host venues, including:

Portland Museum of Art: Winslow Homer: Painter, Etcher; Passages in American Art; Eve Biddle: Wonderlands; and Jared Lank: Bay of Herons.
Colby College Museum of Art: Imagining an Archipelago: Art from Cuba, Guam, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Their Diasporas; By Design: The Worlds of Betsy James Wyeth; and Alex Katz | Out of Sight: A Drawing Survey.
Bowdoin College Museum of Art: USA @ 250; permanent collection installations including Legacies: Art from Renaissance Europe and the Americas and Currents: Art Since 1900.

About the Bowdoin College Museum of Art Recognizing the power of art as an intellectual pursuit, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art promotes creative thought, global engagement, inclusivity, and the common good through its exhibitions, collections, programs, and engagement with faculty, students, and the public. Always free and open year-round, the Museum is a laboratory for creativity and an engine for new learning and scholarship.

About the Colby College Museum of Art Since its founding in 1959, the Colby College Museum of Art has been dedicated to its mission of access to, meaningful engagement with, and joyful connection through art. Free and open to all, the museum advances Colby College’s educational and research mission, enriches the region’s cultural and community life, and contributes to the great field of American art.

About the Portland Museum of Art The Portland Museum of Art, located blocks from the working waterfront in Maine’s largest city, seeks to tell multifaceted stories through art. Showcasing significant holdings of American, European, and contemporary art, as well as iconic works from Maine—the extensive collection highlights the rich artistic tradition of the state and its artists. Committed to its “Art for All” mission, the PMA seeks to create an inclusive space that champions open expression and makes art accessible to all.

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