The O’Brien Art Foundation was proud to serve as a Leading Sponsor of the Initiatives in Art & Culture’s 3oth Annual American Art Conference, Boundless Horizons, held in New York City from May 14-16, 2026, marking the Foundation’s third consecutive year supporting one of the field’s premier gatherings dedicated to the study and advancement of American art. Sessions explored topics ranging from New Deal-era cultural production to museum stewardship, historic frame scholarship, and evolving interpretations of the American art canon. The Foundation was represented by Director of Collections & Exhibitions, Hannah Turpin and board members Debbie Drake and Chris Walther.

Initiatives in Art & Culture (IAC) is an arts education organization that has presented conferences, exhibitions, webinars, and other programs for diverse audiences for nearly 30 years. Committed to exploring the many facets of the fine and decorative arts, IAC focuses on American art, the Arts and Crafts movement, the study of precious metals and materials. Its programming engages cultural heritage and preservation questions, materials sourcing and fabrication, craftsmanship, and connoisseurship, while remaining open to the wide range of questions and perspectives that shape these fields.

Held during New York’s American Art Week, the conference consisted of three days of lectures, panel discussions, and special events, bringing together scholars, curators, collectors, museum professionals, artists, and dealers. Just a few included the artist Joyce Scott; scholars Wanda M. Corn of Stanford University and Erika Doss of the University of Texas at Dallas; Kathleen A. Foster, Senior Curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Anne Helmreich, Director of the Smithsonian Archives of American Art; and curator Lowery Stokes Sims, Curator Emerita of the Museum of Arts and Design.

Additional program highlights included a dive into the extraordinary conservation of Andrew Wyeth’s mural Apotheosis of the Family (1932); a panel addressing the behind-the-scenes challenges of arts institutions during this current political era featuring Randall Griffey of the Henry Luce Foundation; Asma Naeem, Director of the Baltimore Museum of Art; and Jami C. Powell, Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Indigenous Art at the Hood Museum of Art, moderated by art historian Robert Cozzolino.

Particularly exciting for the Foundation was a presentation by writer and independent curator, Larry List, about Roger Anliker, an artist with ties to Carnegie Mellon University where he taught Andy Warhol, and five of whose works on paper were recently donated to the collection. We were also thrilled to hear from a fellow art collector, Minnesota-based Dan Shogren, as part of the “New Deal Art: Expanding Horizons” panel moderated by curator John P. Murphy, about the depth of WPA painting and photography holdings he and his wife Susan Meyer have built. Their collection is exemplary of how collectors can bring attention to histories, artists, and new narratives.

In addition to the conference sessions, Foundation representatives attended a private preview of Heritage Auctions’ American Art Sale, the invitation-only opening of the American Art Fair, and an exclusive viewing of Founders of American Abstract Artist, a 90th Anniversary Celebration at D. Wigmore Fine Art. Fellow participants also joined for a private dinner hosted by IAC founder and president Lisa Koenigsberg.