The American imagination: three talks on art and American identity
Three interconnected talks at 92Y examining how American art reflects, shapes, and challenges national identity narratives.
Why we picked this
Three talks in one afternoon, each approaching American identity through a different artistic lens. The format alone makes this worth the trip — ideas build on each other across the sessions in ways a single lecture cannot.
The 92nd Street Y hosts an afternoon of interconnected talks examining the relationship between American art and American identity. Three speakers approach the same fundamental question from different angles: how does the art a nation produces reflect, shape, and challenge the stories it tells about itself?
The format is deliberate — three talks building on each other rather than a single lecture, allowing ideas to accumulate and complicate across the afternoon. The result is closer to a seminar than a speaker series, with each perspective reframing what came before.
An ambitious afternoon for anyone interested in how artistic expression and national identity feed each other.