The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) has appointed Dalila Scruggs to a newly established position within its curatorial team. Scruggs, currently a curator for photography and prints at the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, is taking on the role of the inaugural Augusta Savage Curator of African American Art at the Washington, D.C. museum. Her focus will be on organizing exhibitions and acquiring African American art, which is a significant part of the museum’s collection. She will officially assume her new position on April 22.
“SAAM boasts one of the most important collections of African American art globally, and I am thrilled that Dr. Scruggs will bring a fresh and insightful perspective to these works that touch on themes that are both universal and specific to the African American and American experiences,” said SAAM Director Stephanie Stebich in a statement.
Dalila Scruggs. | Photo by Jeffrey Mercado
With over 15 years of experience as a curator and museum educator, Scruggs has been serving as curator for photography and prints at the Schomburg Center since 2021. Her projects there have delved into the work of artists such as Elizabeth Catlett and prominent figures like Malcolm X. Scruggs’ upcoming major book, “Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies” (University of Chicago Press), is set for release in September.
She has also collaborated with the Brooklyn Museum as a guest curator since 2020, adding to her previous roles at the Brooklyn Museum as a senior museum instructor and fellowship coordinator (2017-21) and assistant curator of American art (2012-14). In 2017, Scruggs curated “Freedom? Selections from the Paul R. Jones Collection,” in conjunction with the University of Alabama’s Black Faculty and Staff Association, displayed at the Paul R. Jones Gallery in Tuscaloosa. In earlier roles, she was a Mellon Curatorial Fellow for Diversity in the Arts at Williams College and a curatorial intern at the Studio Museum in Harlem.
Scruggs holds a bachelor’s degree in art history from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from Harvard University (2010), focusing on African American art. Her doctoral dissertation titled “‘The Love of Liberty Has Brought Us Here’: The American Colonization Society and the Imaging of African-American Settlers in Liberia, West Africa,” sheds light on daguerreotypist August Washington’s photographic practice. Scruggs’ return to the Smithsonian marks her earlier role as a Terra Foundation for American Art Predoctoral Fellow at SAAM from 2007-08.
As SAAM’s curator of African American art, Scruggs will study the museum’s current African American art holdings, formulate a collection strategy, shape exhibitions, and contribute to public programming and publications. Her role aims to highlight the uniqueness of the art while ensuring that African American art is placed within the context of American art and integrated into the museum’s broader exhibition planning and collection decisions. Additionally, Scruggs will be involved in “American Voices and Visions,” a long-term initiative focused on reorganizing SAAM’s permanent collection.
“SAAM is home to one of the most significant collections of African American art in the world, and I am so pleased that Dr. Scruggs will bring fresh, thoughtful analysis to these works that evoke themes both universal and specific to the African American and the American experience.”
— SAAM Director Stephanie Stebich
The roots of SAAM trace back to 1829 before becoming part of the Smithsonian in 1846. In the mid-1960s, SAAM began acquiring works by African American artists. Early acquisitions featured works by Sargent Johnson, Romare Bearden, Alma Thomas, and James Hampton. In 1967, over 1,000 works by William H. Johnson were received through a gift from the Harmon Foundation. Subsequent acquisitions included pieces by Joshua Johnson, Edmonia Lewis, Edward Mitchell Bannister, Robert S. Duncanson, and Henry Ossawa Tanner. Notably, a small bust by Augusta Savage was added in 1988.
SAAM has amassed a collection of over 48,000 art objects, including 2,000 works by over 200 African American artists, making it a strength of the collection. Notable pieces include the largest institutional holdings of Alma Thomas, William H. Johnson, and daguerreotypes by early photographers James P. Ball, Glenalvin Goodridge, and Augustus Washington. Works by Bill Traylor are also prominent among the acquisitions. Recent additions feature pieces by contemporary artists Sanford Biggers, Bisa Butler, Sonya Clark, Winfred Rembert, Hank Willis Thomas, and Carrie Mae Weems.
Scruggs is the first to assume the position of Augusta Savage Curator of African American Art at SAAM, funded by a $5 million donation to the museum’s endowment from anonymous donors. In honoring the artist’s legacy, the role is named after Augusta Savage (1892-1962). Savage was a sculptor and educator whose students included Charles Alston, Norman Lewis, Jacob Lawrence, and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence. She was a founder of the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts in Harlem (1931), played a key role in establishing the Works Progress Administration-funded Harlem Community Art Center (1934), where she was the founding director, and co-founded the Harlem Artists Guild (1935). Her piece “Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp),” commissioned for the 1939 World’s Fair in New York, is among her most renowned works. CT
For more information, check out the video of Dalila Scruggs lecturing at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts about Elizabeth Catlett’s print “I Have Given the World My Songs,” part of the artist’s Negro Woman series which was featured in the museum’s exhibition “Storied Strings: The Guitar in American Art.”
Explore the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s comic book series Drawn to Art: Tales of Inspiring Women Artists, including a publication about Augusta Savage.
Current exhibitions at SAAM in Washington, D.C., featuring Black artists include:
– “Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas” (Sept. 15, 2023–June 2, 2024)
– “Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour — Frederick Douglass” (Dec. 8, 2023-Dec. 6, 2026)
– “Carrie Mae Weems: Looking Forward, Looking Back” (Sept. 22, 2023-July 7, 2024)
– “J. P. Ball and Robert S. Duncanson: An African American Artistic Collaboration” (Sept. 15, 2023–March 24, 2024)
Recommended Reading:
– “Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies” by Dalila Scruggs (forthcoming in September)
– Exhibition catalog “Between Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor” (2018)
– “Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass” accompanying the work of artist Isaac Julien
– “Alma W. Thomas: Everything Is Beautiful” published alongside a comprehensive Alma Thomas retrospective
