Colby College has named Lee Glazer the founding director of the Lunder Institute for American Art. Currently curator of American art for the Smithsonian Institution’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (Freer|Sackler), Glazer is a leading scholar of American art with expertise in a range of areas, including the work of artists Romare Bearden, Thomas Dewing, and James McNeill Whistler.

As founding director, Glazer will establish the institute’s scholarly and creative direction and build programs and collaborations in support of that direction. This will include developing artist residencies and recruiting and selecting artists to participate, organizing symposia and conferences, leading the institute’s engagement with museum and College audiences, and forging relationships that strengthen the museum’s and Colby’s connections with Waterville and Maine.

“The appointment of Lee Glazer as institute director puts us a giant step closer to building a truly distinctive and global research center for American art at the Colby College Museum of Art,” said Colby President David A. Greene. “Lee is a fine scholar who combines passion for her work with programmatic vision. She is equally at home in the world of ideas and in creating an environment for artists to undertake groundbreaking projects. She will build the foundation for this institute that will last for generations to come.”

Glazer has been with Freer|Sackler since 2007, where she has curated almost 20 exhibitions. She has written or edited eight books and many essays, including one for Whistler and the World, the publication edited by Colby’s Lunder Curator for Whistler Studies Justin McCann, to accompany the 2015 Colby Museum exhibition of the same name. She has also collaborated with contemporary artists to realize projects such as Darren Waterston’s “Filthy Lucre,” an immersive installation at the Freer|Sackler conceived by the artist in response to Whistler’s Peacock Room. Glazer earned her Ph.D. in art history from the University of Pennsylvania.

In her role as director, Glazer will work closely with Colby faculty, students, and the museum’s curatorial and education teams.

“Lee brings a deep knowledge of American art and an inspired vision for working with contemporary artists and scholars,” said Carolyn J. Muzzy Director and Chief Curator Sharon Corwin, who led the search. “She thinks and works across disciplinary boundaries and will push the field of American art in innovative new directions. I can’t think of a more brilliant leader to serve as the Lunder Institute’s founding director.”

This was among other leadership appointments for the Lunder Institute, which was established by a remarkable gift from Life Trustee Paula Crane Lunder, D.F.A. ’98 and Life Overseer Peter Lunder ’56, D.F.A. ’98 in 2017. Earlier this spring Colby announced that renowned artist Theaster Gates will be the first distinguished visiting artist and director of artist initiatives at the Lunder Institute. The poet Richard Blanco is the institute’s spring 2018 artist in residence.

Colby College also named Tanya Sheehan the distinguished scholar and director of research at the Lunder Institute for American Art. A leading scholar in the field, Sheehan is currently the William R. Kenan Jr. Associate Professor of Art and chair of the Department of Art at Colby.

In her role at the Lunder Institute, Sheehan will forge links between the American art curriculum at Colby and scholarship in the field of American art. In addition to teaching courses that support the mission of the Lunder Institute, she will create a variety of innovative research opportunities for Colby students that may include visits to institutional peers, participation in symposia and publications, and engagement with visiting scholars and artists.

She will also support the scholarly program of the Lunder Institute by engaging in research collaborations with artists and scholars in residence and by mentoring the institute’s junior fellows; contribute expertise to the institute’s scholarly programs, including symposia and a summer program; and pursue partnerships with major institutions that support scholarship in the field.

“Tanya Sheehan is uniquely qualified to play this essential role at the College,” said Margaret McFadden, provost and dean of faculty at Colby. “She is both a superb teacher and a field-changing scholar whose work is widely admired around the world. Our students and faculty will benefit enormously from the opportunities that she will create, and the vibrant scholarly discourses that she will help to foster, both on campus and in the wider field of American art.”

“We are building a dream team for the Lunder Institute, and I am thrilled to have Professor Sheehan on board,” said Carolyn J. Muzzy Director and Chief Curator Sharon Corwin. “Her commitment to American art as a researcher and teacher is unparalleled. She will be a force in advancing the scholarly ambitions of the institute.”

On the Colby faculty since 2013, Sheehan teaches the history of American art, race and representation, and art and science. She is the author of Doctored: The Medicine of Photography in Nineteenth-Century America (2011) and Study in Black and White: Photography, Race, Humor (2018).

Her edited books include Photography, History, Difference (2014), Photography and Its Origins (co-edited with Andres Zervigon, 2015), Grove Art Guide to Photography (2017), and Photography and Migration (2018). She has recently contributed essays to The Image of the Black in Western Art series, A Companion to American Art, and the journal American Art. Since 2015 she has served as editor of the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art Journal. Sheehan earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in art history from Brown University.

Sheehan’s appointment at the Lunder Institute will officially begin in September 2019.