“Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” Nominated for Alice Awards by Artistic Landmarks in Contemporary Experience

April 24, 2012
News Release

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery as well as its exhibition and catalog, “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” have been nominated for awards by the Artistic Landmarks in Contemporary Experience. Called the Alice awards, the nominations are for the categories of best museum and public gallery and best catalog. The winners will be announced May 1 as voted by the members of the jury and by a public vote. Public voting is accessible through April 27 at http://www.global-board.org/en.

“The National Portrait Gallery has long been dedicated to tracing the rise and expansion of civil rights in America and the extension to all its people of the promises made in the Declaration of Independence,” said Martin E. Sullivan, director of the National Portrait Gallery. “It is the first exhibition to chronicle the import of lesbians, gays and other sexual minorities in the making of American culture. I am pleased that it continues to receive recognition for the fine work of the curators David C. Ward and Jonathan D. Katz.”

Ward is a National Portrait Gallery historian, and Katz is the director of the doctoral program in visual studies, State University of New York at Buffalo. “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” has been reconstituted by The Brooklyn Museum and the Tacoma Art Museum in Tacoma, Wash. It just opened in Tacoma, its only West Coast stop.

Established in 2011, the Alice Awards are a new type of award presented by the Global Board of Contemporary Art, a worldwide network of professionals and artists connected to contemporary art and to critical discourse about contemporary art in a globalized world. Via a collaboration software, Global Board members vote and rank projects. For the evaluation of the different awards in contemporary art, the artists, curators and critics of the jury will cross the borders of their disciplines in eight main categories: Artist, Curator, Critic, Museum, Public Gallery, Private Gallery, Biennial and Publisher.

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery is located at Eighth and F streets N.W., Washington, D.C. Website: npg.si.edu. Smithsonian Information: (202) 633-1000.

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SI-197-2012

Media Only

Bethany Bentley

202-633-8293

bentleyb@si.edu