 Five years later, in 2017, he retired to become the museum's Senior Research Associate and Director Emeritus.Some of Fairbanks’ artwork is owned by institutions such as the National Portrait Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The Boston Public Library, the Wye House and Myrtle Grove on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and the Alhambra in southern Spain.His work was featured in the exhibit, “Jonathan Leo Fairbanks, A Painter's Journey, 1952-2004,” which was on display at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Hagerstown, MD in 2004.