Thursday, 13 March 2025, 4 – 5pm EDT
In Person at McEvoy Auditorium, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and online
Join art historian Megan A. Smetzer, the 2024 recipient of the Eldredge Prize, which annually recognizes originality and thoroughness of research and excellence in writing, for her 2021 book Painful Beauty: Tlingit Women, Beadwork, and the Art of Resilience. Through extensive archival and museum research, Smetzer shows how beaders countered repressive colonial systems and sustained cultural practices through innovative artistic visions deeply connected to the environment, clan histories, and Tlingit worldviews. Painful Beauty is the first academic monograph that centers contemporary Indigenous community-based knowledge about Tlingit beadwork. Smetzer’s research for the book was supported by many Tlingit artists, scholars, and knowledge keepers.
