This one-day, conversation-oriented forum is dedicated to the study of works of art in an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. It provides specialists with the opportunity to investigate original objects in person and to engage in scholarly dialogue in a small group setting. Scholars with expertise in the subject at hand are invited to explore questions related to the exhibition’s premise and themes with Portrait Gallery scholars. The program also facilitates public discussions with artists and keynote lectures that further explore scholarship related to our exhibitions and objects.
Greenberg Steinhauser Forum in American Portraiture
IDENTIFY: Lee Mingwei and Birita Poulsen with Leslie Ureña
On Tuesday September 1, 2020, Portrait Gallery curator Leslie Ureña interviewed artist Lee Mingwei and vocalist Birita Poulsen about the transnational aspect of Lee's work and the impact of the pandemic on performance art. Lee Mingwei’s Sonic Blossom (2013–present) was presented as part of the Portrait Gallery’s IDENTIFY performance art series in 2018. Birita Poulsen will performed Invitation for Dawn (2020), a sister project of Sonic Blossom developed by Lee that made it possible for one-to-one encounters between participants and performers online via Zoom.
IDENTIFY: Genevieve Gaignard and Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz in Conversation with Taína Caragol
On Tuesday, August 18, Portrait Gallery curator Taína Caragol engaged artists Genevieve Gaignard and Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz in a discussion of their individual photographic and performance practices. Gaignard’s work is featured in “The Outwin 2019” exhibition of contemporary portraiture, while Raimundi-Ortiz has participated in the Portrait Gallery’s IDENTIFY performance art series.
IDENTIFY: Jeffrey Gibson and María Magdalena Campos-Pons with Dorothy Moss
On July 7, 2020, Portrait Gallery curator Dorothy Moss joined in conversation with artists María Magdalena Campos-Pons and Jeffrey Gibson to discuss issues of identity and strategies for reinserting BIPOC histories into museum spaces through live performance and object making.
One Life: Marian Anderson held on Friday, January 17, 2020
Keynote presentation by mezzo-soprano Alicia Hall Moran
Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence held on April 18, 2019
Keynote lecture by Lisa Tetrault, PhD, Carnegie Mellon University “Persistence, Resistance, & Framing the Nineteenth Amendment”
Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Now held on December 14, 2018
