The field of American art history has turned away from the old paradigm of "what is American about American art?" In tandem with related disciplines, such as American studies, history, and literature, it is looking increasingly at relationships and exchanges with the rest of the world, both historic and contemporary. While lines of academic and modernist influence from Europe to the United States were traced in the field's early days, Americanist art historians are now interested in wider encounters with diverse peoples; they are exploring many levels of culture and varieties of media as well as rapidly changing modes of international communication.

This symposium will look at American visual art in a global context -- from circum-Atlantic migrations in the eighteenth century to the impact of European training, trans-Pacific contacts, and immigration patterns on Americans in the late nineteenth century; from the export of U.S. culture and media in the twentieth century to the impact of Latin American, Asian, and other immigrants on the nation's visual arts in the new millennium. Symposium panels will be thematic and take in all time periods as well as all media and geographic spheres. Papers should in some way address the larger issue of how U.S. art and culture has engaged or can better engage its international context -- through past experience or evolving patterns.

The symposium is being funded with a generous grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art in celebration of the museum's reopening in 2006 after extensive renovations. The Terra Foundation is dedicated to fostering exploration, understanding, and development of the visual arts for national and international audiences. To further cross-cultural dialogue on American art, it supports and collaborates on innovative exhibitions, research, and educational programs.

Possible Session Themes:
- Artistic Havens Overseas
- When Expatriates Return
- International Exchanges
- International Perspectives
- The Export of U.S. Culture
- Citizens of the World
- Studying, Collecting, Showing U.S. Art Abroad
- Immigrants and their Impact
- The Future of American Art in a Global Context

Proposals to present 20-minute conference papers should include a 300-word abstract and a curriculum vita. They should be sent to Amelia Goerlitz
Smithsonian American Art Museum
P.O. Box 37012
MRC 970
Washington D.C. 20013-7012
or via e-mail to SAAMSymposium@si.edu. Proposals must be written in English. Deadline for submissions: January 15, 2006.