Curatorial Tour at the American Folk Art Museum

The Americas Chapter of The Society for the History of Collecting is pleased to invite members to a curatorial tour of the

American Folk Art Museum’s

Self-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists and

Folk Nation: Crafting Patriotism in the United States

Wednesday, July 8, 2026 at 3:30pm

Installation view of Self-Made (Image credit: Jason Mandella)

This has been a banner year for the American Folk Art Museum: it is celebrating its 65^th anniversary and has been recognized as the #1 best art museum in America by Newsweek. The two current exhibitions exemplify the museum’s leadership in collecting and exhibiting work that has long been ignored by other institutions. For Self-Made, curator Valérie Rousseau with Suzie Oppenheimer has drawn from the museum’s collection to take a critical look at how the definition of “self-taught” has developed over the last century. In tandem, Folk Nation, curated by Emelie Gevalt and Caroline Culp, is an opportunity to examine how American identity has been shaped by vernacular objects.

Dr. Valérie Rousseau is Curatorial Chair and Senior Curator of 20th-Century & Contemporary Art

Dr. Emelie Gevalt is the Deborah Davenport and Stewart Stender Deputy Director & Chief Curatorial and Program Officer