Description

The Springfield Art Museum (SAM), in Springfield, Missouri, is producing a major catalogue of its permanent collection: holdings of primarily American art that have grown, since 1928, to number 10,000 objects. The forthcoming publication (which will supplant a slim volume produced in 1980) will feature 350 key objects across media–paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, ceramics, and textiles—and will also foreground works by historically excluded artists, including those identifying as women, African American Latinx, Asian American, and LGBTQ+. The book will support the teaching that takes place throughout SAM’s permanent collection galleries, in part through a continually refreshed installation titled, “Creating an American Identity;” it will additionally be a fresh resource for museum staff and teaching partners. The book’s lead authors are SAM curator of art, Sarah Buhr, and museum educator Jenny Schwartzberg, who over the course of the project will involve art history students from long-time partners Missouri State University and Drury University. Texts will include a locally resonant history of museum and collection.