The National Committee for the History of Art, founded in 1980, is the U.S. affiliate of the Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art (CIHA), established in Vienna, Austria, in 1873 and host of quadrennial art history congresses since that date. Planning for the 26th CIHA World Congress, held in Washington, D.C. in 1986 led to the establishment of a U.S. national organization. Currently, the National Committee is planning for a second CIHA World Congress to be held in the U.S. in 2028.
Irving Lavin, founding President of the National Committee, was instrumental in shaping the organization as it prepared to conceive and host the 1986 World Congress, World Art: Themes of Unity in Diversity. Under the leadership of Nancy Troy, the National Committee subsequently hosted an international conference, Past Perfected: Antiquity and its Reinventions, in Los Angeles in 2006. In the years since, the National Committee has focused on developing global networks of art historians, particularly in areas of the world in which art history remains an emerging discipline. With support from The Getty Foundation, and in partnership with the College Art Association, the National Committee brings together art historians from such regions as Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and North America for discussions on the state of the discipline and to help forge communities of scholars around the globe.
For each CIHA World Congress, the National Committee provides travel support for students enrolled in U.S. doctoral programs to attend. Most recently, in 2024, the National Committee helped send to the Congress in Lyon, France, sixteen graduate students, an experience they reported as transformative. You can read the names and bios of these grant recipients on the Travel Grants page of this website.
In spring 2023, the National Committee submitted a bid to host the 37th CIHA World Congress with the theme, Sovereignty. That proposal was accepted by CIHA in 2024, and plans are now underway for a World Congress to be held in Washington, D.C. in June 2028. Members of the National Committee and art historians from across North America are engaged in planning for the event. As part of its planning for the 2028 World Congress, the National Committee is designing programs and determining funding models to generously support the participation of U.S. doctoral students.
Related Organizations
Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts
The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Research & Academic Program
Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art
The Getty Foundation, J. Paul Getty Trust
The Getty Research Institute, J. Paul Getty Trust
School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
