Nancy Strickland Chavis receives the William Collins Smith Auburn Award for Advancing American Art
Nancy Strickland Chavis of UNC Pembroke
AUBURN, Ala. — Nancy Strickland Chavis of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke is the 2025 recipient of the William Collins Smith Auburn Award for Advancing American Art. The $25,000 annual award, established and presented by The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University in 2024, honors an American artist or scholar-practitioner who has significantly impacted the American art scene in the spirit of the university’s modernist collection strength, grounded in creativity, innovation and experimentation. Funded by a transformational gift from the Julia and Albert Smith Foundation, the award also honors the legacy of advisory board chair emeritus William Collins Smith, whose support significantly advanced his mother’s vision of a campus art museum that contributes to an exceptional student experience. The recipient also visits Auburn in October to engage with students, faculty and the community as part of a residency.
The Selection Process
The museum convened independent panels of museum professionals from across the country for both the nomination and selection processes, including Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander, the Robert M. and Ruth L. Halperin Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University; John Wetenhall, founding director of the George Washington University Museum; Zinnia Willits, executive director of the Southeastern Museums Conference; Graham C. Boettcher, the R. Hugh Daniel Director and CEO of the Birmingham Museum of Art; Michelle Millar Fisher, the Ronald C. and Anita L. Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and David Odo, director of the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia.
Nominating panelists were charged with identifying scholars whose work exemplifies the precepts of Advancing American Art, the 1946 exhibition developed and traveled by the U.S. State Department to publicly promote freedom of expression and creativity and upon which the university art collection is founded. Panelists considered candidates with a demonstrated impact on the museum and art fields through influential publications, exhibitions and programs; visionary and empowering leadership; groundbreaking curatorial concepts and research; the championing of freedom of expression and experimentation; and evidence that their work consistently pushed boundaries and set new standards of excellence in the field. Selection panelists convened with a staff facilitator to evaluate the nominees to identify the next recipient of the Auburn Award. Jurors unanimously agreed upon Strickland Chavis’s nomination to museum leadership at Auburn.
Impactful Research and Creative Scholarship
Nancy Strickland Chavis teaches a museum studies course at UNC Pembroke.
“Nancy’s work as an arts educator and a museum curator exemplifies the dynamic intersection of artistic innovation and scholarly engagement,” said Cindi Malinick, executive director of The Jule. “Her ability to spark meaningful dialogue across campuses and across the museum field through her teaching and exhibitions deepens our collective understanding of contemporary Native American art and its relevance to our cultural landscape, making her a wonderful choice as the 2025 recipient of the Auburn Award.”
Malinick added that Strickland Chavis’s forthcoming campus visit holds relevance for a broad range of academic disciplines, from the humanities to applied sciences.
Strickland Chavis, currently the director and curator of The Museum of the Southeast Indian at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, has over twenty years of experience focused on museum education, curation and administration. A member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and the first Lumbee graduate from the Institute of American Indian Arts, she has worked in a variety of institutions, including the Museum of Contemporary Native Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico; the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.; and the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
“Her passion for amplifying the work of Indigenous artists, as both rooted in tradition and contemporary innovators, creates an inspirational and important bridge of understanding between craft and fine art, history and modern expression,” said Zinnia Willits, executive director of the Southeastern Museum Conference. “Nancy steadfastly advocates for inclusive, meaningful representation and demonstratives how curatorship can actively support cultural continuity, regional diversity and intergenerational dialogue, ensuring Native voices are not sidelined but celebrated in the broader narrative of American art.”
Through the lens of art, cultural and historical curation, Strickland Chavis’s work seeks to publicly share authentic stories of Indigenous peoples in the South. In her recent guest curation work with the North Carolina Museum of Art, she brought the exhibition To Take Shape and Meaning: Form and Design in Contemporary American Indian Art to life, featuring three-dimensional works of art from American Indian artists from across the United States and Canada.
“I see my work in museums as being true to the spirit of why museums exist,” said Strickland Chavis. “I think that museums offer some of the most powerful educational experiences that we can have, and I want my work to support that.”
Museum leadership and members of the family of William Collins Smith will present the award to Strickland Chavis at a dinner for alumni and friends of Auburn during her October residency.
