Out of the Shadows Moving Image Scholarship and the History of American Art

From the early days of video art in the 1960s and 1970s to the networked museum of today, the Smithsonian American Art Museum's attitude toward the moving image has reflected and, in turn, influenced the expansion of the American art canon within universities, grant-making bodies, and the public's perception of contemporary creative expression in the United States. In this paper I will trace film, video, and digital media as a focus of scholarship in SAAM's academic programs, as well as the ways in which it intersects with the museum's own investment in new media by the establishment of relevant curatorial positions and landmark acquisitions (e.g., the Nam June Paik Archive).