About Eye Level

Eye Level is a blog produced by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The name Eye Level imparts a sense of clarity to which the blog aspires. The name refers to the physical experience of viewing art, but it also plays on the many roles and perspectives that make a museum a reality—roles that will come into focus here. The title also alludes to works from the museum’s collection: to give one example, in the 1820s, it was fashionable to carry a miniature portrait of a lover’s eyeball.

Using the museum’s collection as a touchstone, the conversation at Eye Level will be dedicated to American art and the ways in which the nation’s art reflects its history and culture. The discussion will extend beyond the walls of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection to include other collections, exhibitions, and events. Eye Level will also document the extraordinary collaboration between curators, conservators, handlers, historians, enthusiasts, critics, exhibition and new media designers, and of course bloggers that has motivated the past and present of American art history.

Eye Level is written and produced by a collaborative team at American Art including:

Ed Bray, Luce Foundation Center
Bridget Callahan, Luce Foundation Center
Jeff Gates, Lead Producer, New Media Initiatives
     and Managing Editor of Eye Level
Georgina Goodlander, Luce Foundation Center
Eleanor Harvey, Chief Curator
Howard Kaplan, Writer (on contract with New Media Initiatives)
Nancy Proctor, Head of New Media Initiatives
Theresa Slowik, Chief, Publications
Tierney Sneeringer, Luce Foundation Center

Contact us at eyelevel@si.edu.

Eye Level Awards and Accolades

Yahoo! Pick, December 16, 2005
2006 SXSW Interactive Finalist, Blog Category
2006 Silver MUSE Award, Two-Way Communication Category
Typepad Site of the Day, May 17, 2006

About the Smithsonian American Art Museum

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is dedicated to the enjoyment and understanding of American art. The museum celebrates the extraordinary creativity of our country's artists, whose works are windows on the American experience.

All regions, cultures, and traditions are represented in the museum's collections, research resources, exhibitions, and public programs. The collection features colonial portraits, nineteenth-century landscapes, American impressionism, twentieth-century realism and abstraction, New Deal projects, sculpture, photography, prints and drawings, contemporary crafts and decorative arts, African American art, Latino art, and folk art.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is the first federal art collection, begun in 1829 with gifts from private collections and art organizations established in the nation's capital before the founding of the Smithsonian in 1846. The museum has grown steadily to become a center for the study, enjoyment, and preservation of America's cultural heritage. Today it houses the world's most important American art collection, with artworks in all media spanning more than three centuries.