Washington, DC | Unboxing at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art with Christina Ayson-Plank and Jayna Josefson

Join ArtTable at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art to discover collections that document the history of women in American visual arts. During this tour and presentation, attendees will learn about the lives and legacies of Toshiko Takaezu and Hung Liu through archival collections.

For more than 70 years, the Archives has provided researchers worldwide with access to the largest collection of primary source materials collected from artists, galleries, and other art world institutions and professionals. The Archives holds nearly 6,500 collections comprised of more than 30 million primary sources including correspondence, diaries, sketchbooks, photographic, audiovisual, and born-digital materials. As one of the oldest and most respected oral history collections in the world,
the Archives’ Oral History Program has preserved the voices of the American art world in more than 2,600 interviews. Learn more about the Archives here.

Toshiko Takaezu (1922–2011) was a pioneering 20 th century ceramic artist known for her signature closed forms and installations. Born in Pepeekeo, Hawai‘i, Takaezu attended Cranbrook Academy in Michigan and taught for decades at Princeton University.

Hung Liu (1948–2021) was a groundbreaking painter whose works drew primarily from historical Chinese photographs of women and children. Born in Changchun, China, Liu studied under Allan Kaprow at the University of California, San Diego and taught for decades at Mills College.

Christina Ayson-Plank is the Asian Pacific American Collections Specialist at the Archives of American Art. She earned her Ph.D. in Visual Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Jayna Josefson is a project archivist at the Archives of American Art with a focus on processing the papers of women artists. She earned her MA in Public History from Wright State University.

For questions about access or to request accommodations please contact us at [email protected].

Program Admission:

• ArtTable Members – $15
• ArtTable Member Guests – $20
• General Admission – $25

Not a member? Join today!

All program registration fees go toward event expenses and administrative costs for the organization.