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In 2026, the United States of America will turn 250 years old, but according to the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, the story of American Art in the United States goes back millennia.
“It was very important for us to think about the United States as part of the history of the art of this continent,” said Hood Museum Director John R. Stomberg. “There were already people here [for] upwards of 10,000 years, making things that certainly fit the idea of art.”
The idea that American art predates the founding of the United States is one of the “touchstones” behind a 12-exhibition suite presented by the Hood Museum that will run alongside the United States’ sestercentennial throughout 2026.
“An anniversary is a good time to look inward, collectively, at what we are,” said Stomberg. “There are shows that are celebratory, there are shows that are critical, but none of them suggest that the United States hasn’t had a brilliant, wonderful, exhilarating history that we all embrace.”
Another touchstone, he explained, was that each exhibition was limited to what the Hood Museum already had — but with about 72,000 objects in the Hood’s collection, “it wasn’t much of a limitation.”
The third touchstone for this series is co-curation. “[Since] we’re interrogating democracy … we took it upon ourselves to curate democratically,” explained Stomberg. “None of our shows are the brainchild of a singular person, they’re all co-curated, which was a pain in the neck but really fruitful. I think that’s true of democracy — it’s a pain in the neck but we love it.”
According to Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Indigenous Art Jami Powell, co-curation allowed the Hood Museum “to tell more complicated narratives and reveal the multiplicity of the American experience.”