Lunder Institute @ 2026

New Haven, Connecticut, May 7–8, 2026

Multiple sessions held over two days, the program brought objects to the center of inquiry, examining how global goods circulating through colonial households acquired new meanings. Turning to the present moment, the program questioned how museums have inherited, framed, and sometimes obscured these histories; these conversations invite reflection on the ethical responsibilities of collecting institutions as stewards of objects that bear the uneven legacies of revolution, extraction, and empire.

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London, May 25, 2026  
 
A conversation centered on James McNeill Whistler’s legacy in transnational artistic networks outside of Europe and the United States. ​This panel discussion posed vital questions about mobility, circulation, and the broader geographies that shaped artistic exchange in the nineteenth century, opening new perspectives on Whistler’s work within and beyond the field of American art.  
 
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London, May 27, 2026

This program looked at the mid-20th century's unprecedented rise in the global influence of American art. Artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, and, later, Faith Ringgold positioned the United States – and New York in particular – at the centre of a creative zeitgeist that left an indelible mark on contemporary art.

The American character of this moment was unmistakable: in O’Keeffe’s reverence for the New Mexico desert landscape, Pollock’s radical inventiveness, Warhol’s embrace of consumer culture and Ringgold’s activist practice.

But what influence does American art hold in the 21st century? Within a rapidly globalizing cultural landscape, this panel brings together British and American perspectives to ask: how does today’s cultural fluidity shape artistic expression and the perspectives of global audiences? And what, in our contemporary moment, makes a work of art distinctly American?

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Venice, June 11, 2026  
 
Lunder Institute @ Peggy Guggenheim Collection: Migrating with Forms examined the evolution of North American art in a global context, exploring the transatlantic dialogues that have shaped its creation, circulation, and reception.  
 
The conversation featured Naomi Beckwith—US art historian, Deputy Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, and Artistic Director of documenta 16—in dialogue with Lucy Bradnock—Dean for Research at the Courtauld Institute of Art, Reader in Modern and Contemporary Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art and Editor of the journal Art History.  
 
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Waterville, October 6–7, 2026  
 
Lunder Institute @ Colby College Museum of Art brings together participants from the 2024 and 2026 Lunder Institute @ cohorts, connecting the initiative's inaugural US-based participants with its expanding international cohort to explore the transatlantic histories and global contexts that have shaped American art.