Cohort Program
Building long-lasting relationships among museums around the nation.
About
The Art Bridges Cohort Program is committed to supporting multi-year exhibition partnerships among museums nationwide. The program builds on Art Bridges’ mission to expand access to American art across the United States and to empower museums to broaden traditional definitions of American art.
Originated in 2018, the Cohort Program (also known as the Art Bridges Initiative) has created seven museum cohorts led by institutions in Boston, Detroit, Fort Worth, Hartford, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. For each cohort, an organizing museum and its regional partners collaborate to create exhibitions that inspire and deepen engagement with local audiences.
Sharing collections and resources, the program’s dynamic partnerships will generate over eighty exhibitions that are content rich, include in-depth educational and interpretive materials, and are designed to meet a wide range of audience interests.
Additionally, presenting partners work with the Art Bridges Learning & Engagement team on programming to further deepen community engagement. The Cohort Program also fosters professional development exchanges between partners and across cohorts, facilitated by Art Bridges-supported staff at the organizing museums, including arts professionals of the Art Bridges Fellows Program.

Courtesy of Mattatuck Museum
Goals
- Expand access to outstanding works of American art among audiences across the United States
- Create opportunities to curate collaboratively using shared collections and resources
- Foster professional-development exchange among all participating institutions
- Form a nationwide network of institutions committed to presenting American art in innovative ways
- Broaden the relevance of museums in the 21st century by piloting meaningful exhibitions with specific communities in mind
Amon Carter Museum of American Art Cohort
Museum partners in Texas are creating exhibitions rooted by the collection of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art.
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Partners
Amarillo Museum of Art (Amarillo, TX)
Art Museum of South Texas (Corpus Christi, TX)
Ellen Noël Art Museum (Odessa, TX)
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas. December 1, 2015. Photograph by Steven Watson.
Detroit Institute of Arts Cohort
Partners in Michigan are co-curating exhibitions that feature the Detroit Institute of Arts collection.
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Partners
Clinton Arts Center (permanently closed)
Dennos Museum Center (Traverse City, MI)
Flint Institute of Arts (Flint, MI)
Grand Rapids Art Museum (Grand Rapids, MI)
Krasl Art Center (St. Joseph, MI)
Lorenzo Cultural Center, Macomb Community College Center Campus (Clinton Township, MI)
Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum (Saginaw, MI)
Muskegon Museum of Art (Muskegon, MI)
Oakland University Art Gallery (Rochester, MI)
William Bonifas Fine Arts Center (Escanaba, MI)
File ID 152482185 | © Smontgom65 | Dreamstime.com
Los Angeles County Museum of Art Cohort
Partner museums in Southern California are co-organizing exhibitions with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to provide Local Access.
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Partners
California State University, Northridge Art Galleries (Northridge, CA)
Lancaster Museum of Art and History (Lancaster, CA)
Riverside Art Museum (Riverside, CA)
Vincent Price Art Museum (Monterey Park, CA)
File ID 75360728 | © Coralimages2020 | Dreamstime.com
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Cohort
Four partner museums in the Northeast are creating exhibitions centered around artworks from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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Partners
Fenimore Art Museum (Cooperstown, NY)
Mattatuck Museum (Waterbury, CT)
Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute (Utica, NY)
Springfield Museums (Springfield, MA)
File ID 77456354 | © Demerzel21 | Dreamstime.com
Philadelphia Museum of Art Cohort
Eight partner museums across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are organizing exhibitions anchored by Philadelphia Museum of Art artworks.
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Partners
Allentown Art Museum (Allentown, PA)
Demuth Museum/Lancaster Museum of Art (Lancaster, PA)
Erie Art Museum (Erie, PA)
James A. Michener Art Museum (Doylestown, PA)
Palmer Museum of Art [Penn State University] (University Park, PA)
Reading Public Museum (Reading, PA)
Trout Gallery [Dickinson College] (Carlisle, PA)
Westmoreland Museum of American Art (Greensburg, PA)
File ID 12121773 | © Josephjulian | Dreamstime.com
Smithsonian American Art Museum Cohort
After exhibiting selections from the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection, partners of the American West Consortium are presenting a collaboratively organized exhibition.
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Partners
Boise Art Museum (Boise, ID)
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art [University of Oregon] (Eugene, OR)
Utah Museum of Fine Arts [University of Utah] (Salt Lake City, UT)
Whatcom Museum (Bellingham, WA)
Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum; Image by Tim Hursley
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art Cohort
Three partner museums in the Southeast are sharing their collections alongside the Wadsworth Museum of Art in a series of exhibitions.
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Partners
Columbia Museum of Art (Columbia, SC)
Mobile Museum of Art (Mobile, AL)
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts (Montgomery, AL)
File ID 118598417 | © Jiawangkun | Dreamstime.com