Our Research Fellowship Program encourages new research on the work, ideas, and creative legacies of Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson.

Our Fellowship Program is open to graduate students, recent college graduates, doctoral and post-doctoral researchers, artists, early career museum professionals, and Holt and Smithson scholars working towards a specific publication, exhibition, or project.

Fellows will research from their home base and are supported by a stipend, travel allowance, and open dialogue with Holt/Smithson Foundation. Research Fellowships take place over a four-week time period between May 1 and September 30th annually.

Each year Holt/Smithson Foundation identifies two key subject areas of research, from which applicants create a specific research proposal. The open call for applications to this annual program is announced in late December, with applications due in February.

person reading a book titled "franjo" while resting the book on their knees.
Nancy Holt working on Star Crossed

Annie Dell'Aria

Annie Dell'Aria's project constructs a full narrative of Nancy Holt's Star-Crossed (1979-80), intersecting with the bureaucratic hurdles and institutional aspirations of a new museum commissioning work on a public university campus, inspiration from Indigenous earthworks of the Miami people, and practical and material challenges to realization and preservation.
a structure built of galvanized steel pipes built in a grassy field

Grace Storey

Grace Storey will compile a comprehensive exhibition history for Nancy Holt, from 1969–present. This research project will contribute towards Holt's catalogue raisonné.
a graphic depicting Jose Luis Arroyo-Robles project

José Luis Arroyo-Robles

José Luis Arroyo-Robles project focuses on drawing the speculative route that Nancy Holt, Robert Smithson, and Virginia Dwan may have followed during their journey in the south of Mexico in 1969.
Nancy Holt on Dartmoor

Joy Sleeman

Joy Sleeman's research revisits Holt’s and Smithson’s travels in England and Wales between August 20 and September 30, 1969; places where they spent time, took photographs, and made other forms of art.
two figures walking through a sand quarry

Rory O'Dea

Rory O'Dea's Research Fellowship focuses on Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt's time and work in the Pine Barrens, NJ.
A drawing of Lake Edge Crescents by Robert Smithson

Margo Handwerker

Margo Handwerker's Research Fellowship expands on her doctoral dissertation “Art/Work: The Systems-Oriented Artist Expert, 1968–1984” by focusing on Robert Smithson’s 1972 proposal for Lake Edge Crescents in Ohio.