By LINDA KELLETT

For the C-S-E

CANAJOHARIE — A late-year quest to our nation’s capital netted Arkell Museum Chief Curator Diane Forsberg with newfound riches — but they weren’t the kind one normally associates with wealth.

Rather, the “gems” that the veteran curator brought back to Canajoharie were nuggets of information, gleaned from late-December research at the Smithsonian-affiliated Archives of American Art. Those bits of knowledge will benefit three future local exhibitions, including an upcoming collaborative exhibit with the Fenimore Art Museum that’s slated to receive national attention.

Specifically, the three shows include exhibits of American Impressionist works at the Arkell Museum and Fenimore Art Museum this summer; a circus-themed exhibit on Beech-Nut and American art featuring actual pieces from the Beech-Nut miniature circus; and a display of works from the Artists’ Fund Society’s Erie Canal trip, funded in 1880 by William J. Arkell.

The circus-themed show could potentially take place during the fall/winter of 2012-2013, while the Erie Canal show is scheduled for the summer of 2013.

Forsberg late last week said that a grant from the Erie Canalway Partner Program funded her research trip to Washington, D.C.

Why would a local curator venture so far afield for information for local exhibits?

According to the archives’ website, http://www.aaa.si.edu, the Archives of American Art initially served as a “microfilm repository of papers housed in other institutions.” It later assumed the mission of “collecting and preserving ... primary sources that document the history of the visual arts in America.”

As a result, Forsberg has tapped into microfilmed records preserved there while researching and documenting other exhibitions.

In a recent e-mail, she noted, “Before the opening of the new museum building, I spent hundreds of hours reviewing the microfilm records about the Arkell collection. Since 2007 I have been compiling a list of items at the archives that are not available on microfilm. I used this list and an in-depth review of finding aids to develop a request list that I sent to the Archives of American Art prior to my arrival.”

Forsberg noted the archives has over 16 million items, but it “restricts access to no more than a handful of researchers at a time. Access is also limited to items not on microfilm.”

As a result of her visit to the archives, Forsberg said she had an opportunity to view and digitally record photographs and correspondence between Bartlett Arkell, galleries (such as the New York City-based Macbeth Gallery, from which Arkell bought most of his works), artists, and curators.

She also unearthed information “that will inform and shape” the future exhibitions — particularly the American Impressionists’ show with the Fenimore museum, for which the Arkell Museum is loaning 12 oil paintings.

Concurrent with the Fenimore exhibition, the Arkell Museum will feature its fragile collection of American Impressionist pastel and watercolor paintings by artists like Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam, John Singer Sargent, Theodore Robinson, and Maurice Prendergast.

Forsberg is one of two authors writing essays for the American Impressionists’ catalogue, which Fenimore Art Museum President and CEO Paul D’Ambrosio is compiling.

As noted by D’Ambrosio, who is also organizing the May 26 to September 16 exhibition, the catalogue will contain color photographs of all of the works in the Cooperstown show. Megan Holloway Fort, who has worked for the Metropolitan, is writing the second essay.

D’Ambrosio said, “It’s going to be a terrific show, and Diane’s been a great help. The Arkell has an amazing collection of American art that deserves a much bigger audience than it currently has.”

About 40 paintings in all will be featured in the exhibit, including a work by Claude Monet, the father of American Impressionism. Additional works from the Metropolitan and other museums in the Northeast specializing in American Impressionism will also be featured, he said.

In order to promote the exhibit, D’Ambrosio said a New York City-based public relations firm will organize a media tour that he will undertake in March. At that time, D’Ambrosio will meet with news outlets like the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Reuters, Oprah magazine and the like. Because of this kind of media exposure, he said the Fenimore museum has seen a 25 percent increase in attendance over the last three years.

D’Ambrosio will also be promoting the upcoming collaborative exhibit this week during the opening of a new American wing at the Metropolitan Museum.