Call for Applications, 2020-2021: 

The Tyson Scholars of American Art Program at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Crystal Bridges Museum and the Tyson Scholars Program encourages and supports scholarship that seeks to expand boundaries or traditional categories of investigation into American art. Crystal Bridges invites applications addressing a variety of topics including art history, architecture, visual and material culture, American studies, craft, Indigenous art, Latin American art, American studies, and contemporary art. Projects with an interdisciplinary focus are particularly encouraged. 

The program is open to scholars holding a PhD (or equivalent experience) as well as to PhD candidates. Applicants may be affiliated with a university, museum, or independent. Scholars will be selected on the basis of their potential to advance understanding of American art and to intersect meaningfully with aspects of Crystal Bridges’ collections, architecture, or landscape. 

To support their research, Tyson Scholars have access to the art and library collections of Crystal Bridges as well as the library at the University of Arkansas in nearby Fayetteville. Stipends vary depending on the duration of residency, position as senior scholar, post-doctoral scholar or pre-doctoral scholar, and range from $15,000 to $30,000 per semester. Additional funds for relocation are provided, and research travel funds are available during the residency upon application. Scholars are also provided with housing at one of the Crystal Bridges residences, within easy walking distance from the Museum via wooded trails and approximately 1.5 miles from downtown Bentonville. Scholars have private bed and bathrooms in the house, and share comfortable indoor and outdoor common spaces including an expansive yard, garage, and patio. In addition to housing, Scholars are provided workspace in the curatorial wing of Crystal Bridges’ library. The workspace is an enclosed area shared with other Tyson Scholars. Scholars are provided with basic office supplies, desk space, an office chair, space on a bookshelf, and a locking cabinet with key for personal belongings and files.

Further information about the Tyson Scholars Program, application instructions, and application portal can be found at http://crystalbridges.org/tyson-scholars/. Applications for the 2020-2021 academic year open November 1, 2019 and close January 15, 2020.

About Crystal Bridges:

Opened to the public on November 11, 2011, Crystal Bridges was founded in 2005 by philanthropist Alice Walton. Crystal Bridges’ permanent collection spans five centuries of American art ranging from the Colonial era to the current day. It has particular strengths in colonial through earlytwentieth-century painting and a growing collection of post-war and contemporary art in all media. Crystal Bridges’ research library consists of approximately 60,000 volumes as well as significant manuscript and ephemera holdings. The library also houses a comprehensive collection of American color-plate books from the nineteenth century.

The Tyson Scholars of American Art Program supports full-time scholarship in an expansive definition of American art and visual and material culture from the colonial period to the present. The program was established in 2012 through a $5 million commitment from the Tyson family and Tyson Foods, Inc. Since its inception, the Tyson Scholars program has supported the work of 41 scholars, attracting academic professionals in a variety of disciplines from across the country.