The Norman Rockwell Museum has announced the creation of the Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies, the first research institute dedicated solely to American illustration art.

The center will provide stipends to scholars exploring illustration art, house a database of illustration-related materials, establish a network of like-minded institutions to share information about artists, and develop a collection of illustration art of the past 150 years.

“Illustration is the quintessential American visual art,” said Laurie Norton Moffatt, director of the Rockwell museum. “From the Civil War to the present, it has commanded the power of mass communication to help unite and define a vast nation of diverse people and interests. Academic institutions and museums are beginning to recognize the influence and significance of the art presented in magazines, books, newspapers, comics, advertisements, billboards, and, now, increasingly, in electronic media. We see a need and an opportunity for Norman Rockwell Museum to play a convening role in the field—to bring together scholars, curators, and collectors to study, examine, present, and preserve illustration art. Ultimately, our vision is one of catalyzing a deep and lasting body of illustration art scholarship and a new generation of scholars and curators—as well as museumgoers—deeply engaged by this field.”

Joyce Schiller will be the curator of the center. In her previous position she served as curator of American art at the Delaware Art Museum for seven years.