Crafting the Dream

Initiatives in Art and Culture presents another ambitious American Art Conference in Manhattan this May

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Arthur Dove (1880-1946), The Critic, 1925. Assemblage of paper, newspaper, fabric, cord, broken glass, watercolor and graphite pencil on board, 19½ x 13 x 24 in. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Historic Art Association of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Mr. and Mrs. Morton L. Janklow, the Howard and Jean Lipman Foundation, Inc., and Hannelore Schulhof; 76.9.

May 8-10, 2025
Initiatives in Arts and Culture 29th Annual American Art Conference
Heritage Auctions 445 Park Avenue New York, NY 10022 www.artinitiatives.com

Crafting the Dream,” Initiatives in Art and Culture's 29th annual American Art Conference, takes place May 8 through 10 at Heritage Auctions in New York City. Drawing an impressive roster of scholars, curators and artists, it is at the forefront of critical inquiry in the field.

This year's conference considers American art through the twin lenses of “dream” and “craft,” acknowledging an incontrovertible connection between the two, informed by the conviction that, just as there is no art without craft, there is no craft without art.

All art, it can be argued, begins with a dream, whether of subject, stylistic approach, medium, message, or of all of these. No one more overtly recognized the role of the dream in artistic production than the surrealists, and the conference will focus in part on the movement's impact on and reverberations within American art.

George E. Ohr (1857-1918), Vase, 1900. Earthenware, 11/16 x 6% in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of Robert A. Ellison Jr., 2017; 2017.357.11.