KANSAS CITY.- The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: American Paintings to 1945 has been named the winner of the Midwest Art History Society Award for Outstanding Exhibition or Collection Catalogue for 2007.

Project leader for the two-volume set was Margaret C. Conrads, Samuel Sosland Senior Curator of American Art. The catalogue is the fourth and most extensive in a series about the Nelson-Atkins collections and is the result of more than 20 years of research on American paintings at the Museum. It was published by the Museum and the University of Washington Press in June 2007.

The Midwest Art History Society praised the work for its scholarly contributions to the field and for the quality of its writing and design. The Society announced the award at its April meeting in Chicago.

“We are very grateful to the Society for this recognition. Living with these works and weaving together their stories has provided immeasurable pleasure,” said Conrads, the primary author and editor of the catalogue. “By presenting new scholarship, we hope to share the fruits of our detailed research with everyone, from the art-loving public to scholars around the world.”

Volume One of the catalogue has 562 pages, 141 colorplates and 115 black-and-white comparative illustrations. Volume Two contains 280 pages and 267 colorplates. The set is available for purchase at the Museum Store.

The extensive research greatly expanded curators’ information about works in the American collection, which will soon be reinstalled in new galleries that will open in the spring of 2009.

“The close examination of our collection during catalogue research especially led me to a better understanding of which paintings wanted to be near each other,” Conrads said. “In the end, we used not only a chronological arrangement but organized smaller sections around where the art was created.”

In the new galleries, works of art will be grouped around key dates in American history and art history, as well as according to five primary regions across the United States and parts of Europe. This arrangement will allow viewers to see the commonalities and differences among artists as they worked in similar time frames and locations.

The reinstallation of the American collections follows an initiative that began with the 2006 reinstallation of the European galleries. In both the European and American galleries, paintings and sculpture are integrated with works from the Decorative Arts collection.