person kneeling beside a sculptural wall, and using tools to mark the alignment of the shadow of the sculpture

40th Anniversary Celebration of Nancy Holt's "Time Span"

March 23, 2021

We are delighted to partner with The Contemporary Austin and Austin Film Society this April to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Nancy Holt's sculpture Time Span (1981) at Laguna Gloria, in Austin, Texas.

In Time Span Holt highlights the overlapping cycles of personal and astronomical time. Each year on April 5, the artist’s birthday, a shadow is cast by the afternoon sun through the sculpture’s steel wheel to frame a plaque on the ground inscribed with the artwork’s date of completion, also April 5. Despite the solidity of its materials, Time Span reflects change, offering variable sight lines of the surrounding landscape at different times of the day and year.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of this work we have collaborated with The Contemporary Austin and Austin Film Society to create the following program of film screenings and discussions:

Outdoor Screening of Holt Films at Laguna Gloria, Austin, TX
April 3, 2021 at 8:15pm CDT

This in-person, outdoor screening at The Contemporary Austin's Laguna Gloria Campus will feature the Nancy Holt films Sun Tunnels (1978) and The Making of Amarillo Ramp (1973/2014) as well as the collaborative film Swamp, made by Holt and Robert Smithson in 1969.

Purchase tickets for the screening and learn more about the health and safety guidelines for the event on The Contemporary Austin website.

Annual Viewing of Nancy Holt's Time Span Alignment at Laguna Gloria, Austin, TX
April 5, 2021 at 2pm CDT

Reserve tickets to witness the shadow alignment of Time Span through The Contemporary Austin website.

On Nancy Holt's Life and Art: A Conversation with DeeDee Halleck, Rachel Kushner, and Lisa Le Feuvre
April 5, 2021 at 6pm CDT
Virtual Discussion

On Nancy Holt’s birthdate, best-selling author, Rachel Kushner, interviews media activist DeeDee Halleck, Holt’s long-time collaborator and friend. With Holt/Smithson Foundation Executive Director Lisa Le Feuvre moderating, they will discuss Holt’s art, her life with Robert Smithson, Halleck’s memories of their time and work together, and the changing roles of women artists.

Online Viewing of Holt and Smithson's East Coast/West Coast (1971) through Austin Film Society
April 3—10, 2021

In this improvised film, Holt assumes the role of an intellectual conceptual artist from New York while Smithson plays the stereotypical “non-conformist” from the West Coast. East Coast/West Coast (1971) will be available for online viewing the through the Austin Film Society website.

Nancy Holt working on the metal plaque in the ground that marks the completion of Time Span at 2pm on April 5, 1981.

©Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York

Archived News

two people site at a diner table looking forward, one smokes a cigarette. black and white.

We Are Hiring

April 8, 2026

Holt/Smithson Foundation is pleased to invite applications for a Research Assistant to join our small and dedicated team.

Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson transformed the world of art and ideas. Holt/Smithson Foundation advances their distinctive creative legacies to inspire future generations and serves as a hub for all things Holt and Smithson.

A close up of a golden sunrise through Holt's Sun Tunnels.

Film screening at Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles

April 2, 2026

On the occasion of the exhibition Nancy Holt: Light and Shadow Poetics at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House, we are pleased to present a special screening event.

Holt's "Sky Mound" drawings in "Waste" at Museum Ostwall

March 25, 2026

Museum Ostwall at the Dortmunder U presents the exhibition Waste. An exhibition about the global routes of rubbish, which features works by Nancy Holt relating to her unfinished project Sky Mound (1984-). Waste is on view through July 26, 2026.

an artist working on a large drawing on the floor of their studio

Matt Mullican at Archives of American Art: 2026 Holt/Smithson Foundation Annual Lecture

February 27, 2026

We are very pleased to share details of the 2026 Holt/Smithson Foundation Annual Lecture. Our guest speaker is artist Matt Mullican, and our partner for the fifth event in the series is the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art.

"Nancy Holt: MoonSunStarEarthSkyWater" at Goodwood Art Foundation

February 20, 2026

In May, Goodwood Art Foundation in southern England will present a major exhibition dedicated to Nancy Holt, on view through November 1, 2026. The exhibition forms part of Goodwood’s annual summer program, spanning its two galleries and 70-acre landscape, which features wooded glades, ancient woodland, and meadowland.

Films by Holt and Smithson on view at The Museum of Modern Art

February 18, 2026

Three films by Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson are currently on view at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in collection gallery 411 of the David Geffen Wing. This presentation focuses on Spiral Jetty (1970), Swamp (1971), and Sun Tunnels (1978). Newly restored scans of the first two works are presented as part of a collaboration between Holt/Smithson Foundation and MoMA to preserve their moving-image work.