The Phillips Collection-George Washington University Partnership

The Phillips Collection (TPC) and the George Washington University maintain an extensive partnership that benefits undergraduate and graduate students. Each semester GW art history courses are taught at the Center for the Study of Modern Art, which provides unique access to original works of art. In addition to organized programs, the partnership has strengthened a long-standing commitment by TPC to provide internships for GW students.

Postdoctoral Fellowship
A collaborative Postdoctoral Fellowship supports research and teaching on topics in American, European, or non-western art from 1780 to the present. Each year the Fellow teaches one undergraduate or graduate course, presents a public lecture, and participates in other programs and discussions with students, scholars, critics, and museum staff at the museum and the university.

Valerie Hellstein (Ph.D., Stony Brook University) is the 2012-13 Postdoctoral Fellow. Dr. Hellstein is a scholar of twentieth-century American and European art, with a current focus on Abstract Expressionism. While at the Phillips, she is completing a book manuscript about Abstract Expressionism and The Club, investigating how the conversations related to metaphysics, psychology, and philosophy the artists and intellectuals held there embodied a radical critique of cold war politics and individuality. Dr. Hellstein is also teaching a course for GW graduate students and members of the public on twentieth-century abstract art and metaphysics, and will be holding a public lecture entitled "Painting the Spiritual" at The Phillips Collection on April 25, 2013.

Click here to view past fellows.

Conversations with Artists
The co-sponsored Conversations with Artists series provides opportunities to hear from and speak with leading contemporary artists in an informal, small-group setting. Visiting artists also conduct individual studio visits with MFA students.

2012-13 Conversations with Artists : Sculpture + Post-Studio Practice 

October 25, 2012: Matthew Day Jackson (in conversation with Zan
Dumbadze)

November 29, 2012:  Pedro Reyes (in conversation with Vesela Sretenovic)

February 28, 2013:  Tehching Hsieh (in conversation with Anne Goodyear)

March 21, 2013:  Jessica Stockholder (in conversation with Klaus Ottmann)

April 11, 2013:  Daniel Bozhkov (in conversation with James Sham)

April 18, 2013:  Wangechi Mutu (in conversation with Klaus Ottmann)