The Center

The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts is the National Gallery’s research institute. We foster the study of the production, use, and cultural meaning of art, artifacts, architecture, urbanism, photography, and film from all places and periods.

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In Praise of Difficulty: Ambiguity, Aesthetics, and the Work of Art in Medieval Europe

National Gallery of Art Announces C. D. Dickerson III as Dean of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts

Photographer not yet known, “Individuos realizando dibujos a lápiz en la academia de San Carlos” (“Individual [students] creating pencil drawings in the San Carlos Academy”), c. 1905, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia de México, Colección Mediateca

Histories of Art Academies in Europe and the Americas

Brady & Co., Relics of Andersonville Prison, June 1866, albumen silver print, 22.1 × 18.9 cm (8 11/16 × 7 7/16 in.), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gilman Collection, Purchase, Joseph M. Cohen Gift, 2005, 2005.100.98

The Evidence of History: Photographs of the American Civil War

Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne, 1520–1523, oil on canvas, National Gallery, London

The Confounding Glance: Meraviglia, Attraction, and the Invention of Love at First Sight

Detail of ASR, TNC, uff. 15, 1624, pt. I, vol. 99, fol. 367r (January 24, 1624)

Navigating Our New Interface

Middle Atlantic Symposium

New Appointments: Visiting Senior Fellows, March–August 2026

Apply for a Visiting Senior Fellowship by March 21

Cover of Art & Histories, the first volume of the Art & series

National Gallery’s Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts Announces New Publication, Art & 

Design, Pedagogy, Access

Book Launch: Art & Histories

2025–2026 Fellows Announced

Fellowships

Fellows are at the heart of our residential community, joining appointed professors, postdoctoral research associates, undergraduate interns, and staff to create a thriving group of approximately 50 people. 

Join us as a fellow

Learn about our fellowships across various career levels, from predoctoral students to senior professionals.

Current Fellows

See our current community of international scholars, comprised of approximately 20 fellows in residence at any given time.

Former Fellows

We have over 1,200 alumni across the world. Explore our former fellows and read reports on their research.

Annual Reports

Our annual report records the activities and research conducted at the Center during each academic year.

Programs

The Center organizes scholarly meetings that embrace multiple ways of engaging in art’s histories, encompassing all media, time periods, and geographies.

About Center Programs

From lectures and panels to book discussions, our programs are held primarily at the National Gallery of Art.

A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts

Inaugurated in 1949, the Mellon Lectures is the longest-running lecture series at the National Gallery of Art and is organized by the Center.

Program Recordings

Watch recordings of Center programs, including annual lecture series and symposia inspired by National Gallery exhibitions.

Publications

Our publications seek to deepen our knowledge of the artistic past, present, and future, transforming our understanding of art’s role in the world.

Upcoming and recent volumes

See all Center publications

Publication:  Art & Water

Essays, personal meditations, and images that explore water in all its renewing, destructive, corrosive, and connecting power.

Publication:  Academies of Art in Europe and the Americas, 1600–1900

A 300-year history of influential artist training academies in more than a dozen countries

Publication:  Art & Histories

The first volume in the new series Art & signals a bold vision for a more dynamic study of art.

Publication:  Black Modernisms in the Translatlantic World

Ten leading scholars broaden our understandings of modernism by centering Black artists and experiences with beautifully illustrated essays.

Publication:  Contact: Art and the Pull of Print

A leading art historian presents a new grammar for understanding the meaning and significance of print.

Publication:  The Forest: A Fable of America in the 1830s

A vivid historical imagining of life in the early United States.

Research

We support a variety of research initiatives designed to contribute to scholarly communities around the globe.

The image shows a drawing featuring multiple sketches, with the most prominent being a figure on horseback. The figure is shown from a three-quarter rear view, capturing most of the body of the horse and the rider. The rider's position is leaning slightly forward, holding a shield on their back, and pointing with their right arm extended outward. The facial features are obscured by a helmet, and the hair is not visible. The rider's clothing is indicative of armor, providing a sense of historical context, with details such as the helmet and shield being prominent. The horse is detailed, with its head in profile and showcasing the craftsmanship in the depiction of its mane. Around the rider, the background features additional sketches, including another rider in the upper right corner and a lightly sketched, unclothed figure in red chalk in the lower right area of the image. The background is a plain, textured surface, typical of aged paper, with no additional scenery or landscape details. The lack of color beyond the monochrome and red chalk emphasizes the drawing's nature as a study or draft.

Current Project :  The Early History of the Accademia di San Luca

Explore research and scholarly essays about the Accademia di San Luca in Rome—one of the first academies of painters, sculptors, and architects, founded in 1593.

This painting shows a park-like landscape with trees, flowers, bushes, and a pond, all surrounded by light brown paths. The pond is in the center of the park, with light green-blue water framed by bushes, ferns, and tall flowers. Across from the pond are three large, white structures that could be mausoleums. Behind them is a hill with trees and more white graves or mausoleums on top of it. On either side of the pond, past the paths that encircle it, are tall trees with leaves in shades of dark green and brown. On the right side is a tall white structure that could be a grave or a monument. At the bottom of the painting, the paths curve up over a small hill in front of the pond. In between the paths are sections of grass dotted with small pink and white flowers. On the right side of the painting, a couple walks down the hill towards the pond. The person on the left wears a long blue coat decorated with gold buttons and a large, plumed hat, while the person on the right wears a pink gown and blue bonnet. Above the scene, the sky is blue, with puffy white clouds.

Digital Resource :  History of Early American Landscape Design

With thousands of texts and citations and around 1,700 images, the History of Early American Landscape Design (HEALD) is an inquiry into the language of early American landscape aesthetics and garden design.

This is a photograph of a quilt. The quilt features a large, central starburst pattern made of small diamond shapes in vibrant colors including yellow, red, blue, green, and purple, radiating from the center. The starburst is surrounded by four sections, each with floral motifs consisting of red and yellow flowers on a dark blue background. A red zigzag border framed by a yellow strip provides contrast around the quilt, and there is a corner of the quilt turned over to show the pattern on the back, which is a simpler design in reddish-brown.

In Progress :  Research Initiatives

Learn about all current initiatives, from catalyzing research on the National Gallery’s Index of American Design collection to the intertwined histories of art and creative therapies.