Megan A. Smetzer Wins 36th Eldredge Prize for ​"Painful Beauty: Tlingit Women, Beadwork, and the Art of Resilience"

@americanart

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has announced Megan A. Smetzer as the recipient of the 36th annual Charles C. Eldredge Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in American Art for her book *Painful Beauty: Tlingit Women, Beadwork, and the Art of Resilience* (University of Washington Press, 2021). Through extensive archival and museum research, Smetzer reveals how Tlingit beaders resisted colonial oppression and preserved cultural traditions through artistic innovation, drawing deeply from the environment, clan histories, and Tlingit worldviews.

This groundbreaking academic work is the first to center contemporary Indigenous community knowledge about Tlingit beadwork. Smetzer's research was enriched by contributions from numerous Tlingit artists, scholars, and knowledge keepers.

Aldona Jonaitis, director emerita of the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska, who nominated *Painful Beauty*, praised it as "one of the most original and significant publications on Northwest Coast Indigenous art history in the past two decades" and "a model of sensitive, ethical scholarship that sets a standard for the field."

The jury for the $3,000 prize included Karen Mary Davalos, professor of Chicano and Latino studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Amy M. Mooney, professor of art history at Columbia College Chicago; and Laura Kina, Vincent de Paul Professor at the Art School of DePaul University. They commended Smetzer for her "relational approach," a key method in Indigenous studies that disrupts settler-colonial narratives. The jury highlighted her ability to convey the memories, histories, and clan affiliations embedded in Tlingit beadwork, including moccasins, regalia, dance collars, and contemporary designs. They praised *Painful Beauty* for its integration of Tlingit aesthetics, object-based interpretations, archival research, interviews, and historiography, presented in a readable text that connects past and present. Smetzer’s study of women’s contributions and Tlingit matrilineal culture offers powerful intergenerational insights and revitalizes American art history.

Smetzer teaches art history at Capilano University in North Vancouver, British Columbia, specializing in historical and contemporary Indigenous art, with a focus on women’s cultural works from the Pacific Northwest. She has previously received fellowships from the Terra Foundation of American Art, the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art, and the Luce/ACLS program. Smetzer holds a PhD from the University of British Columbia, an MA from Williams College, and a BA from Smith College.

Smetzer will deliver the annual Eldredge Prize Lecture, both in person and online, on Thursday, March 13, 2025. Further details will be available online.

The 2024 Eldredge Prize shortlist included the following titles: *A Nimble Arc: James Van Der Zee and Photography* by Emilie Boone (Duke University Press, 2023); *Stitching Love and Loss: A Gee’s Bend Quilt* by Lisa Gail Collins (University of Washington Press, 2023); *Queer Behavior: Scott Burton and Performance Art* by David J. Getsy (University of Chicago Press, 2022); and *Risk Work: Making Art and Guerrilla Tactics in Punitive America, 1967–1987* by Faye Raquel Gleisser (University of Chicago Press, 2023).

The Eldredge Prize, established in 1989 and named after the museum’s former director, honors outstanding scholarship in American art history. Sponsored by the American Art Forum, the award is given annually to a single-author book that demonstrates original research, excellence in writing, and clarity of method. Nominations for the 2025 prize are due by January 15, 2025.