Cléa Massiani Laurent Receives Prestigious SAAM Predoctoral Fellowship in American Art

Cléa will research progressive art studios in the archives for her dissertation project

Cléa Massiani has been awarded a Predoctoral Fellowship by the Smithsonian American Art Museum to support her dissertation research and writing. Cléa will serve as a Big Ten Academic Alliance/Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellow in the academic year 2026-2027.

For over fifty years the Smithsonian American Art Museum has fostered new scholarship through its preeminent fellowship program, which is the oldest and largest in the world for the study of American art. SAAM has hosted fellows and visiting scholars from more than 260 institutions in 44 states and 23 foreign countries.

Cléa joins this august corps of fellows with a dissertation project entitled Artists with Cognitive Disabilities and the Progressive Studios.

Congratulations Cléa!