New York, NY – As the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Initiatives in Art & Culture (IAC) marks the 30th year of its American Art Conference, convening artists, curators, collectors, and scholars to examine important questions in American art: how do we define horizon? Who defines it? What artificial boundaries are being challenged as part of that effort?
Boundless Horizons, IAC’s 2026 3-day American Art Conference, May 14-16, atHeritage Auctions, explores how artists have challenged imposed limits, and, in doing so, reshaped American cultural identity.
The speakers include a wide range of leading voices in American art today, among them Anne Helmreich, Director of the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art; Randall Griffey, Director of American Art at the Henry Luce Foundation; noted collector of American WPA photography and painting Dan Shogren (along with his wife Susan Meyer); Kathleen Foster, Senior Curator of American Art and Director of the Center for American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and artist Joyce Scott in a rare conversation on race, feminism, and spirituality in her work.
Wanda M. Corn, a leading scholar of American modernism, will discuss her forthcoming book on Grant Wood and American Gothic, and pioneering scholar on American Frames Suzanne Smeaton will discuss the frame choice for this iconic work. A panel on the American West brings together contemporary landscape artists Tony Abeyta and Don Stinson alongside leading scholars to reconsider landscape through contemporary and Indigenous perspectives. Additional sessions on New Deal art and institutional leadership address the future of cultural stewardship.
Occurring at a pivotal moment in the nation’s history, this program of wide-ranging talks and panel discussions is designed to expand perspectives on American art, culture, and artists. It positions American art as an evolving and essential field shaped as much by resistance to constraint as by tradition. The conference explores how American art continues to move beyond familiar narratives and expand definitions of form, subject matter, and media.
“American artists have always resisted imposed limits,” said Lisa Koenigsberg, Founder and President of IAC on the conference. “They don’t just expand conceptions of American art, they reshape it. American artists have articulated a powerful truth: that our art links us to our past, informs our present, and points us toward a future that is ours to define.”
The conference includes a private preview of Heritage Auctions’ American Art sale, access to theAmerican Art Fair Gala, and an exclusive viewing of The Founders of American Abstract Artists: A 90th Anniversary Celebration at D. Wigmore Fine Art. Additionally, members of the Appraisers Association of America can receive CE credits for attending the conference.
Leadership Funding is provided by the O’Brien Art Foundation and Anchor Sponsorship by Heritage Auctions.
EVENT DETAILS
What: Boundless Horizons
when: May 14 – May 16, 2026
Where: Heritage Auctions
445 Park Avenue (between East 56 street and East 57th street)
New York, New York
Information about the current Market, IAC, and the Conference’s history below.
SPONSORS
About the Market
Observations about American art are underscored by clear, measurable shifts in both visibility and the market. American art collections continue to attract strong interest from both institutional and private collectors.
With respect to market trends, and despite financial constraints and preservation challenges, the cultural shift, with respect to identity and media, is evident in acquisition trends, often reflecting the inclination of collectors who fund specific initiatives. Evidence suggests that museum, institutional, and individual collectors of American art (all of which contribute to shaping a cultural canon) increasingly include works by members of formerly excluded groups and from underexplored periods (e.g. New Deal) and media (e.g. photography and fiber) previously seen as peripheral, reflecting or underpinning the collective shift in consciousness, and the attendant approach to redefining American art.
Even as funding and budgetary pressures continue exert pressure on the field the field, it has been reported that since 2020, major U.S. institutions have increased acquisitions of work by women to over 30% of new purchases at, up from roughly 10 to 15% in the decade prior. Works by artists of color have become a central focus of collecting, exhibitions, and scholarship. The market has followed, with historically overlooked American artists, including African American, Indigenous, and LGBTQ+ artists seeing strong growth at auction and in private sales, including numbers of record-setting results in recent years. Similar up-ticks in the market are also reflected in substantial attention to areas such as New Deal–era art and from beyond the acknowledged art epicenters, that is from various regions of the United States, as well as in media that challenge what comes under the definition of “art” rather than being subordinated, among them fiber, photography, jewelry and ceramics.
About Initiatives in Art & Culture (IAC)
Initiatives in Arts and Culture (IAC) educates diverse audiences across the globe in the fine, decorative, and visual arts. Embodying and informed by a cross-disciplinary approach, our primary activities are conferences, publications, and exhibitions that explore issues related to fabrication, connoisseurship, cultural patrimony, cultural preservation, and the future of culture. Particular areas of emphasis include American art, the Arts & Crafts Movement, the frame and precious substances. https://artinitiatives.com/
About the Conference
Now in its 30th year, the American Art Conference, presented by Initiatives in Art and Culture and led by founder and president Lisa Koenigsberg, is the premier gathering of collectors, curators, dealers, museum professionals, academics, artists and all others interested in American Art. It has become a place where the field actually shows up. Not just to present, but to think, challenge, and sometimes rethink what American art is and who it belongs to.Since 1996, it has brought together the American art community. What’s kept it relevant is that it has never treated American art as fixed. The premise has always been that the field is bigger, messier, and more expansive than the traditional narratives allow. The work covered here spans everything from painting and sculpture to photography, ceramics, textiles, and other media,and the ways that the works are made. But a centralfocus has always been the context around the work. Culture. History. Identity. Power. Who gets included. Who gets left out. And why.The conference has become one of the few spaces where scholarship, curatorial thinking, collecting, and the market are all in the same room, in conversation with each other.Over three decades, the conference has brought in people with real authority in the field. Not just titles, but influence.That includes curators from institutions from major institutions with strong emphasis on American art:
Alongside academic voices who have helped define how American art is studied:
And curators who are actively shaping the conversation now:
The conference has also brought in collectors and cultural leaders like Jan and Marica Vilcek, Jim Dicke II, and Glenn Lowry along with artists Stephen Hannock, Angela Fraleigh, Leslie Dill, and scholars including Debra Briker Balkan, Jacqueline Francis, Adrienne Childs, and Barbara Novak.
The throughline is simple. These are people whose work has impact. And they are in dialogue with each other here.
The conference is rooted in New York City, but it does not operate in a vacuum. It has been held in partnership with institutions and market leaders like Heritage Auctions and often extends into museums, private collections, and cultural sites across the city–and beyond. It is also timed to sit alongside major moments in the New York art calendar. Fairs, auctions, exhibitions. to intentionally keeps the conference connected to what is actually happening in the field, not just what is being written about it.
Thirty years in, the American Art Conference has built its reputation by not playing it safe. It asks questions the field is already wrestling with and puts the right people in the room to engage with them. It is not just about looking back at American art. It is about understanding how the past relates to where it is going and who gets to shape that future and the ways in which they do so.
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Christopher Massimine, communications
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