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Expanding Narratives of American Art
The Terra Foundation for American Art fosters intercultural dialogues and encourages transformative practices through grants and collection loans to cultural institutions worldwide.
Supported Projects
Transformative Practices
Transformative Practices
First Americans Museum is creating object-family reunions that provide deeper knowledge about the objects within the national collection, challenging the idea that institutionally collected objects no longer have familial ties to cultural communities.
Big Soldier family (Iowa Tribe) reunited with their grandfather’s breechcloth at First Americans Museum, 2023 [NMAI 027462.000]. Photo by James Pepper Henry.
Partnership and Collaboration
Partnership and Collaboration
We collaborate with partners to identify collection objects for loan that amplify their institution’s permanent collections and invite opportunities for new narratives, voices, and practices.
Gallery Talk led by Dr. Kimia Shahi, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California and 2022-23 Fellow at the Center for the Environment, Harvard University, at the Harvard Art Museums featuring Samuel Coleman's Ships Unloading, New York (1868), on loan from the Terra Foundation for American Art. May 3, 2023. Image courtesy of the Harvard Art Museums; © President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Intercultural Dialogues
Intercultural Dialogues
New Art School Modality envisions an alternative model for art and art historical research and teaching, while solidifying a global, interdisciplinary, and intergenerational forum.
New Art School Modality module Arts Writing / Writing About Art, 2024
Annual Grant Programs
The Stories We Carry, collection reinstallation, Seattle Museum of Art, copyright: Chloe Collyer
Grants
Open
Open to organizations working to re-interpret and re-present their permanent collections through re-installation or temporary exhibitions. Includes research and planning support.
| Inquiry Due | August 4, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Proposal Due | October 6, 2025 |
| Grant Range | $25K–$100K |
“How can we gather now?,” March 31–April 2, 2023, produced by Washington Project for the Arts, co-directed by Asad Raza & Prem Krishnamurthy, symposium attendee Anisa Olufemi asks a question during Stefanie Hessler’s keynote lecture, photo by McKenzie Grant-Gordon courtesy of Washington Project for the Arts.
Grants
Open
Support for conferences, workshops, and gatherings that stimulate interdisciplinary and intercultural exchange, and nurture relationships across networks.
| Inquiry Due | September 29, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Proposal Due | December 1, 2025 |
| Grant Range | $10K–$25K |
Installation view of Americans in Paris: Artists Working in Postwar France, 1946–1962. Photo: David Heald. Courtesy Grey Art Museum, New York University
Grants
Closed
Support for organizations planning and presenting temporary loan exhibitions. Includes research and planning support.
| Inquiry Due | March 6, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Proposal Due | May 15, 2026 |
| Grant Range | $25K–$200K |
American Art, Global Dialogues
The Terra Foundation Art Collection includes more than 750 artworks spanning 200 years, available for short- and long-term loans through innovative object sharing programs.
Frederic Edwin Church, The Iceberg, c. 1875. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1993.6
Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Boy with Cow, 1921. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund, 2017.1
Alma Thomas, Untitled, c. 1960. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund, 2024.1. © 2024 Estate of Alma Thomas (Courtesy of the Hart Family) / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Henry Ossawa Tanner, Les Invalides, Paris, 1896. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1999.140
Romare Bearden, After Church, 1941. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund, 2015.2. Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
John Frederick Peto, Old Time Letter Rack, 1894. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund, 2015.5
Jamie Wyeth, Kalounna in Frogtown , 1986. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1992.163
Joseph Stella, Telegraph Poles with Buildings , 1917. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1999.139
Beauford Delaney, Untitled (Village Street Scene), 1948. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund, 2018.2. © Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator
Quotation
It is important that our work encourages telling stories reflective of the multivocality and complexity of American art history.
Terra Foundation Library for American Art
Sharing Histories, Connecting Cultures
Sharing Histories, Connecting Cultures
The Terra Foundation Library for American Art includes more than 12,000 books and catalogues on American art and culture, available for onsite consultation in our reading room in Paris.
The Terra Foundation Library for American Art is a non-circulating research library located in Paris, France, and open to the public.
Stories and News
Ammi Phillips Girl in a Red Dress, c. 1835. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1992.57
Partner Stories
Terra Collection-in-Residence
Terra Collection-in-Residence: Ackland Art Museum’s Triple Take