The CNA fellowship program supports and nurtures future generations of scholars and specialists in Netherlandish art. Through mentorship and access to the MFA’s rich collections, resources, and research facilities, fellows further their professional development and are part of an active learning community. The CNA is committed to fostering a broad and diverse international applicant pool and encourages individuals of all backgrounds to apply. Fellowship candidates who require visa sponsorship are welcome to apply and are considered on an equal basis in accordance with applicable laws and our organization’s policy. The MFA also assists successful candidates with the visa application process, depending on the visa category.

Fellowships provide an opportunity to pursue an independent research project, determined by the fellow, related to the MFA’s expansive collections of Netherlandish art, which includes paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, works on paper, early books, and more. Research topics may focus on Dutch and/or Flemish art and culture of the long 17th century (about 1560–1800), including contacts and exchanges between the Netherlands and other global regions. Interdisciplinary approaches are not required, but are encouraged and supported.

The CNA acknowledges the continued need to make the field of Netherlandish art history more inclusive and equitable and seeks to foster early career professionals of all identities and nationalities representing a range of backgrounds, prior experiences, and research priorities. Fellowships are open to a range of educational levels. from MA graduates to recent postdoctoral scholars. Proposed projects might address, for example, research for submission of a PhD proposal, PhD dissertation work, and/or preparation of a publication.

2025–26 CNA Research Fellows

Renata Nagy

Renata received her PhD at Yale University in 2025, focusing her research on user engagement with Netherlandish natural history books and works on paper from the 17th century. She cocurated the exhibition “Thinking Small: Dutch Art to Scale,” which was on view at the MFA and Yale University Art Gallery in 2023 to 2024, and she curated a digital exhibition at Yale showcasing readers’ practices in books devoted to the study of nature. Most recently, Renata was a museum fellow at the Yale Center for British Art.

Hannah Prescott

Hannah is a PhD candidate at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her dissertation focuses on the representation and global circulation of linen in the Dutch Republic during the 17th century. She previously worked as the Kress predoctoral fellow for the Dutch Textile Trade Project and held curatorial internships at the National Gallery of Art, the Walters Art Museum, and the Frick Collection. As an incoming predoctoral fellow at the CNA, Hannah is excited to integrate the MFA’s collection of linen textiles into her research.

Henrike Scholten

Henrike Scholten is an art historian and visual artist from the Netherlands. She is completing her PhD at Utrecht University within the European Research Council–funded DURARE project. Her dissertation centers on watercolor techniques and their perceived relation to durability in the long 17th century. At the CNA, she is looking forward to continuing her research into early modern cabinet miniature painting, with a focus on the elusive miniature painter Jacob Berents. 

2026 Hans Brenninkmeyer Visiting Senior Fellowship

Stephanie Porras

Stephanie Porras is professor of Art History at Tulane University and the author of Pieter Bruegel’s Historical Imagination (2016), Art of the Northern Renaissance: Courts, Commerce and Devotion (2018) and The First Viral Images: Maerten de Vos, Antwerp Print and the Early Modern Globe (2023). She has coedited several volumes, most recently, with Stephen Campbell, The Routledge Companion to the Global Renaissance (2024), a collection of 48 essays introducing objects made across the early modern world. A member of the editorial board of the Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, Porras has also coedited recent yearbooks on ecocritical perspectives on Netherlandish art and on the art histories of the Dutch Americas. She is currently at work on a volume dedicated to drawing in the Low Countries.

About the Hans Brenninkmeyer Visiting Senior Fellowship

Introduced in 2024, the Hans Brenninkmeyer Visiting Senior fellowship invites established scholars to participate in a short-term residence at the CNA, where they can conduct independent research and contribute to the vibrant intellectual life of the Center through activities such as lectures, workshops, and panel discussions. The fellowship creates an opportunity for participants to nurture outstanding research, work with MFA collections, and connect with MFA staff and members of the CNA community.

In spring 2025, the CNA hosted Judith Noorman, associate professor of Early Modern Art History at the University of Amsterdam, as the second Brenninkmeyer fellow. Erma Hermens, director of the Hamilton Kerr Institute at the University of Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, was the inaugural Brenninkmeyer fellow in spring 2024.