Trinity Faculty Member’s Public Art Guide Wins National Award of Excellence

The digital humanities website Public Art CT—sponsored in part by Trinity College and created by a Trinity faculty member—has received a 2026 Award of Excellence from the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH). The AASLH Leadership in History Awards recognize achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history.

Founded and edited by Alden R. Gordon ’69, Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts, Emeritus, Public Art CT is a free website guidebook and catalog of the best of Connecticut’s art and architecture in public places. Visitors to the site can discover public art by town, artist or architect, monument title, or keyword as they explore online or in person. Users also can discover public art near them using the website’s geo-location mapping.

“Public Art CT is the exhibition catalog to the permanent free exhibition of art and architecture in public places all across Connecticut,” Gordon said.

Gordon created Public Art CT at Trinity with the intention that it would integrate Connecticut’s visual cultural assets to make it as easy as possible for a visitor or a resident to discover the art that is all around them, regardless of who owns it.

Gordon accepted the award from the AASLH at the 2026 Joint Conference of the AASLH and the National Council on Public History (NCPH) in Providence, Rhode Island, on September 18, 2026.

According to Brenton Grom, executive director of the Webb Deane Stevens Museum, “The broad array of sculptures, murals, architecture, and landscapes that Public Art CT embraces as public art are, in fact, the daily companions of everyone who moves through public space. Public Art CT names them, contextualizes them, and returns that knowledge to the public without a ticket price attached.”

Vanessa Sigalas, chief curator at Hartford’s Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, considers the Public Art CT project to be “in every sense museum-worthy—forward-looking, accessible, and deeply engaged with community.”

While Jackie Gorsky Mandyck, executive director of The iQuilt Plan writes, “Public Art CT represents an important contribution to how Connecticut documents and shares its cultural resources.”

This year, AASLH conferred 42 national awards honoring people, projects, exhibits, and publications. The AASLH said that the winners represented the best in the field and provide leadership for the future of state and local history.

About the American Association for State and Local History:

AASLH, a national nonprofit association, provides leadership and resources to help the history community thrive and make the past more meaningful for all people. AASLH serves the tens of thousands of history organizations, professionals, and volunteers around the country who help people of all ages develop critical thinking skills and understand how learning history helps society make progress toward justice. Through research, advocacy, and field-leading professional development program, AASLH advances public history practice and connects history practitioners to critical issues in the field and to one another.

The AASLH awards program was initiated in 1945 to establish and encourage standards of excellence in the collection, preservation, and interpretation of state and local history throughout the United States. The AASLH Leadership in History Awards not only honors significant achievement in the field of state and local history, but also brings public recognition of the opportunities for small and large organizations, institutions, and programs to make contributions in this arena.

For more information about AASLH, visit www.aaslh.org.