The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in Washington, D.C., has announced a $2 million grant from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation in support of professional development fellowships at the museum.

The largest grant specifically for fellowships in the history of the museum will endow a fellowship program—named for Helen Frankenthaler, an American painter credited with advancing the Color Field style of abstract expressionist painting, who died in 2011—to advance research in modern and contemporary art and provide year-long residencies at the predoctoral level and nine-month residencies at the postdoctoral level. With the award, the museum has raised $10 million as part of its Fellowship Program 50th Anniversary Campaign.

The fellowship program, part of the museum’s Research and Scholars Center, will foster scholarship by providing emerging and established scholars with financial support, publication guidance, research resources, and access to a network of colleagues and experts across the Smithsonian Institution. Frankenthaler fellowships will be awarded starting with the 2024–25 academic year following an application cycle that begins in September.

“Thanks to the deep generosity of supporters like the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, the excellence of SAAM’s exceptional fellowship program and its longstanding role in catalyzing innovative research and new perspectives is strengthened for generations,” said Smithsonian American Art Museum director Stephanie Stebich.

(Photo credit: Wikimedia/Smithsonian American Art Museum)