CAA News Today

American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works

The American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) has appointed two new members to its board of directors. Beginning three-years terms are Ingrid Bogel, executive director of the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Jeanne Drewes, chief of binding and collections care in the Preservation Directorate at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Bogel and Drewes will help the board to implement a new three-year strategic plan that includes expanding and strengthening the organization’s core educational purposes, building awareness and advancing support of the conservation profession, and strengthening AIC’s organization and structure.

Art Historians Interested in Pedagogy and Technology

Art Historians Interested in Pedagogy and Technology (AHPT) has announced two new officers: Marjorie Och, professor of art history at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, has become president; and Sarah Scott, assistant professor of art history at Wagner College in Staten Island, New York, is secretary.

The AHPT business meeting will take place at the CAA Annual Conference on Wednesday, February 9, 7:30–9:00 AM in Gibson Room, 2nd Floor, Hilton New York. Immediately following the meeting is the AHPT-sponsored session, “Technology and Collaboration in the Art History Classroom,” chaired by Och and featuring Susan Healy, Frances Altvater, Janice Lynn Robertson, and Eva J. Allen.

AHPT has recently become an affiliated society of the Southeastern College Art Conference and plans to sponsor sessions at that organization’s annual meeting in addition to those at the CAA conference.

Arts Council of the African Studies Association

A book on African expressive culture, Trevor H. J. Marchand’s The Masons of Djenné (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009), shared the 2010 Melville J. Herskovits Award, given by the African Studies Association for an outstanding original scholarly work on Africa. A member of the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA), Marchand is senior lecturer in social anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. (The cowinner is Adeline Masquelier, Women and Islamic Revival in a West African Town.) Last year’s Herskovits Award was given to Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie for Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2008).

Association for Textual Scholarship in Art History

The Association for Textual Scholarship in Art History (ATSAH) will sponsor a session, called “Symbolism, Its Origins, and Its Consequences II,” at CAA’s upcoming Annual Conference and under the umbrella of Art, Literature, and Music in Symbolism and Decadence, a newly formed society. Taking place on Thursday, February 10, 12:30–2:00 PM, in Sutton Parlor North, Hilton New York, the session seeks to foster a dialogue among scholars on the origins and consequences of the Symbolist movement in art, literature, and music following an international conference, “The Symbolist Movement: Its Origins and Its Consequences,” held at the University of Illinois’ Allerton Park and Retreat Center in Monticello in April 2009. The CAA papers address topics that span the fifteenth through the twentieth century and cross a number of disciplines such as the visual arts, music, literature, and philosophy, with a particular focus on the different ways in which artists associated with Symbolism have engaged with artistic tradition and referred to other forms of expression in their quest to develop new forms and to illuminate the many facets of aesthetic experience. Chaired by Rosina Neginsky and Deborah H. Cibelli, the session features papers by Brendan Cole, Cassandra Sciortino, Leslie Steward Curtis, and Davide Lacagnina. Please see the Conference Program for full details.

Also at the CAA conference, ATSAH will hold its business meeting on Friday, February 11, 12:30–2:00 PM at the Hilton New York, Gramercy A, 2nd Floor. All members are welcome to attend the discussion.

Association of Historians of American Art

The Association of Historians of American Art (AHAA) has announced a new board cochair: Jenny Carson, assistant professor in the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. She assumes the role at the upcoming CAA Annual Conference.

Jeffrey Weidman, senior librarian in the Spencer Art Reference Library at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, has provided a set of useful, extensive links, called Web Resources for American Art, which covers work up to 1945. In August, 2010, Choice magazine gave the compilation a three-star rating, highly recommending it.

AHAA is sponsoring two sessions at the CAA Annual Conference in New York. Chaired by Melanie Herzog and Frances Pohl, the first, “(Re)Collecting Memory: Oral History as Testimony of Lived Experience,” takes place on Thursday, February 10, 2011, 12:30–2:00 PM, Hilton New York, Gibson Room, 2nd Floor. Participants are Avis Berman, Theresa Leininger-Miller, Margo Machida, and Liza Kirwin. The second session, “Color and Nineteenth-Century American Painting,” chaired by Peter John Brownlee, is scheduled for Friday, February 11, 2011, 2:30–5:00 PM, Hilton New York, Madison Suite, 2nd Floor. Speakers are Lance Mayer, Gay Myers, Adrienne Baxter Bell, Michael Rossi, Matthew Bailey, and Maggie M. Cao; serving as the discussant is David Bjelajac.

Just before the second session is the AHAA business meeting, taking place on Friday, February 11, 2011, 12:30–2:00 PM, Hilton New York, Regent Parlor, 2nd Floor. Light refreshments will be served. All members and interested parties are invited to attend the meeting and two sessions.

Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art

The annual business meeting for the Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art (AHNCA) will take place at the CAA Annual Conference in New York on Thursday, February 10, 5:30–7:00 PM at the Hilton New York, Regent Parlor, 2nd Floor. Elections will be held for president, program coordinator, and members-at-large.

Also at the CAA conference, AHNCA members are also invited to take part in a private visit to the New York Public Library Prints and Photographs Study Room on Wednesday, February 9, 2011, 11:00 AM–12:30 PM. The curators Stephen Pinson and David Christie will introduce highlights and rarely exhibited holdings in the library’s extensive collection of prints and photographs. Among other things, Christie plans to show prints related to the 1853 World’s Fair in New York as well as works by both well-known and not-so-famous “heroes of print.” There is no cost for AHNCA members, but space is limited. Please contact Elizabeth Mansfield before January 15 to reserve your place.

AHNCA now publishes its membership directory online as a searchable PDF. The Newsletter is also sent electronically. Members who do not have email will continue to receive a hardcopy by post.

Foundations in Art: Theory and Education

Foundations in Art: Theory and Education (FATE) and the Mid-America College Art Association, another CAA affiliated society, will present a joint conference, called “ON STREAM,” at the Ball Park Hilton in St. Louis, Missouri. Taking place March 30–April 2, 2011, the conference will explore how artists and teachers develop and foster creativity in the second decade of the third millennium. For more details, visit the FATE website or contact Jeff Boshart, conference coordinator.

Historians of British Art

The Historians of British Art (HBA) will host a special panel of “Young Scholars, Works in Progress” during the HBA business meeting at the CAA Annual Conference on Friday, February 11, 7:30–9:00 AM. The meeting will be held at the Hilton New York, Bryant Suite, 2nd Floor. Informal audience discussion will follow three fifteen-minute presentations: Amanda Lahikainen, “‘British Asignats’: Satirical Representation and the Politicization of Paper Currency in 1797”; Keren Hammerschlag, “Artistic Scientists and Scientific Artists at the British Royal Academy 1860–1900”; and Emily Davis, “British Literary Periodicals Transform the Female Form in Turn-of-the-Century Glasgow.” All are welcome to attend.

Historians of Islamic Art Association

The Historians of Islamic Art Association (HIAA) has announced the election of Sheila Canby, Patti Cadby Birch Curator in Charge of the Department of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as president-elect.

The annual majlis, or meeting, takes place at Hunter College in New York on February 12, 2011, 1:00–5:30 PM in the Lang Auditorium, North Building. Details of the program are published online. The HIAA business meeting and reception follow the presentations.

International Association of Word and Image Studies

The International Association of Word and Image Studies (IAWIS) recently sponsored an international conference devoted to the emerging theme of architecture and fiction, called “Once upon a Place: Haunted Houses and Imaginary Cities,” that took place October 12–14, 2010, in Lisbon, Portugal. The conference tackled the reciprocal influences between architecture and fiction, whether they appear under literary forms or other means related to visual narratives and popular culture. Questions that were addressed included: What kinds of stories do spaces and buildings tell us? What insights into architectural knowledge and experience can literary forms convey? Are designs, buildings, and cities a fabrication on the world? Does form follows fiction? Can fiction foresee architecture and urban futures? The program gathered over thirty papers by architects, scholars, and artists. Among the presenters were Alberto Manguel, Colin Fournier, Kazys Varnelis, Ângela Ferreira, Gonçalo M. Tavares, Jane Rendell, François Schuiten, and Benoît Peeters. An associated event of the 2010 Lisbon Architecture Triennale, the IAWIS conference was a joint initiative of CIAUD/Faculty of Architecture Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, with the collaboration of CUC-Centro Cultura Urbana Contemporânea and the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian

The next IAWIS conference, “Imaginary/L’imaginaire,” will take place in Montreal, Quebec, this summer: August 22–26, 2011.

Leonardo Education and Art Forum

As part of its collaboration with the conferences Media Art History and SIGGRAPH, Leonardo Education and Art Forum (LEAF) seeks participants for “Media Art History 2011: Rewire,” the fourth international conference on the histories of media art, science, and technology. The event will be held in Liverpool, England, from September 28 to October 1, 2011. The call for papers is now open. Deadline: January 31, 2011.

LEAF also encourages the submission of papers and/or digitally mediated art for SIGGRAPH in Vancouver, British Columbia. In addition, selected works will be published in a special issue of Leonardo: Journal of the International Society of the Arts, Sciences and Technology. Deadline: January 14, 2011.

National Council of Arts Administrators

Jim Hopfensperger of the Gwen Frostic School of Art at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo was elected president of the board of directors at the recent annual conference of the National Council of Arts Administrators (NCAA), held November 17–20, 2010, in Austin, Texas. In addition, Kim Russo of the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, and Sergio Soave from the Department of Art at Ohio State University in Columbus, were elected to three-year terms as board members.

At the upcoming CAA Annual Conference in New York, NCAA will present a session, called “‘Will You Friend Me?’ Social Media Possibilities, Responsibilities, and Challenges in Art Administration and Teaching,” on Friday, February 11, 5:30–7:30 PM. The four participants—Cora Lynn Deibler, Andrea Eis, Kim Russo, and Georgia Strange—will present a panel on the uses and abuses of social media and cloud computing in the academic environment.

Also at the CAA conference, join NCAA for its annual reception on Thursday, February 10, 5:30–7:30 PM, for networking and dialogue. See the Conference Program for the exact location of the reception in the Hilton New York. NCAA welcomes current members, new members, and innocent bystanders to all events.

Public Art Dialogue

Public Art Dialogue (PAD) is pleased to announce the recipient of its 2011 Award for Achievement in the Field of Public Art: Anne Pasternak, president and artistic director of Creative Time, based in New York. PAD will honor her immediately after a brief business meeting to be held at the CAA Annual Conference, on Friday, February 11, 5:30–7:00 PM in Gramercy A, 2nd Floor, Hilton New York. On receipt of the award, Pasternak will discuss the ongoing need for activist art in the public realm. Her talk will be followed by a brief conversation with Harriet F. Senie, PAD cochair, about Senie’s favorite projects. After the discussion, audience members may join the dialogue. This meeting and award presentation are free and open to the public. PAD gives the annual award to an individual whose contributions have had profound influence on the field, and its winners receive honorary lifetime PAD membership. The artist Suzanne Lacy was the inaugural award winner, in 2009. Last year, PAD recognized the achievements of the curator Mary Jane Jacob.

The latest newsletter for Public Art Dialogue (PAD) newsletter has been published online. This issue contains information about the upcoming launch of the journal Public Art Dialogue, edited by Cher Krause Knight and Harriet F. Senie, which will be available in early 2011. Subscription to Public Art Dialogue—at a discounted rate—is a benefit of organizational membership. The newsletter also details the inaugural PAD Portfolio Reviews, to be held during the CAA conference in New York. For further information, please write to Juilee Decker, PAD membership coordinator.

Radical Art Caucus

Celebrate the tenth birthday of the Radical Art Caucus (RAC) with a slice of cake at the annual reception, held at the CAA Annual Conference on Friday, February 11, 5:30–7:00 PM; see the Conference Program for the exact location. RAC will also discuss questions of unions and academic labor and make strategic plans for CAA’s 2012 and 2013 meetings. Don’t miss the RAC-sponsored sessions: “Video Art as Mass Medium,” chaired by Benj Gerdes and Nate Harrison; and “Environmental Sustainability in Art History, Theory, and Practice,” organized by Travis Nygard, RAC copresident. Look out for updates on the RAC Facebook page or contact Joanna Gardner-Huggett, RAC secretary, if you have any additional questions or news to share.

Society for Photographic Education

The Society for Photographic Education (SPE) forty-eighth national conference, called “Science, Poetry, and the Photographic Image,” will examine the confluence of the ideologies of scientists and poets in the context of photography. To be held March 10–13, 2011, at the Sheraton Atlanta Hotel in Georgia, the conference will feature presentations from artists, educators, historians, and curators, as well as one-on-one portfolio critiques and informal portfolio sharing, a print raffle and silent auction, and film screenings, exhibitions, tours, and receptions. Speakers include Abelardo Morell, Catherine Wagner, Carolyn Guertin, Justine Cooper, and more. Student volunteers receive discounted admission.

Society of North American Goldsmiths

Registration opened on January 11, 2011, for the Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG) conference, “FLUX,” taking place May 26–29, 2011, in Seattle, Washington. Hosted by the Seattle Metals Guild and sponsored by Rio Grande, the conference includes two important programs with conference registration: the Education Dialogue, a three-hour session that gives educators a place to discuss the current issues they are facing in academia; and the Professional Development Seminar, a three-hour event providing concrete information that will change the way you approach your work and the way you do business. Review the full conference schedule, available as a PDF. Register now for the Demo Days preconference workshops produced by the Seattle Metals Guild; only eighty tickets will be sold. Student, educator, and guild registration grants and discounts are available. For more information, please write to SNAG.

Visual Resources Association

The Visual Resources Association (VRA) and the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) will hold their second annual joint conference March 24–28, 2011, in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. With the theme “Collaboration: Building Bridges in the 21st Century,” the conference will provide a two-in-one opportunity for attendees to obtain cutting-edge information about current trends in the book and image realms. In addition to pertinent sessions, exhibitions, and workshops, the full schedule includes several exciting events that are planned throughout the culturally vibrant Twin Cities. Experience an Italian Renaissance architectural gem by attending the fundraising “Founders’ Fête” at the historic Gale Mansion. Afterward, the Minneapolis Institute of Art will open its doors for attendees to view the exhibition, Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Painting: Masterpieces from the National Galleries of Scotland. The welcome party, called “The Icebreaker,” will take place at the Walker Art Center. Conference attendees can also experience artists’ collaboratives focused on book arts, printmaking, and ceramics or take architectural tours.

Women’s Caucus for Art

Join the Women’s Caucus for Art (WCA) for its 2011 annual conference, “LIVE SPACE: women + art + activism,” with events running concurrently with the CAA Annual Conference in New York. For a morning of networking, sharing work, performances, videos, and panels, please visit the WCA Live Space Confab on Thursday morning, February 10, 2011, 8:00 AM–NOON at the Hilton New York, New York Suite, 4th Floor.

Later that day (5:30–7:00 PM), head uptown for the artists’ reception for Sanctuaries in Time, an exhibition of the Jewish Women Artist Network (a WCA caucus) at Columbia/Barnard Hillel, Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life, 606 West 115th Street. The show is on view January 21–March 1. Also on Thursday, the Young Women’s Caucus will present What Young Women Artists Want at Raandesk Gallery of Art, 16 West 23rd Street, 4th Floor (7:00–9:00 PM). This event will showcase independent films from members and allies of the Young Women’s Caucus, a moving canvas of theater pieces in a collaborative gallery setting, and outdoor flash mob art performances. From 6:00 to 9:00 PM, a reception for Control, a traveling exhibition from WCA’s South Bay and Peninsula chapters, will be held at Ceres Gallery, 547 West 27th Street, Suite 201.

On Friday, February 11, New Century Artists will host a reception for Hidden Cities, the WCA national juried exhibition, that will take place 7:00–9:00 PM at the gallery at 530 West 25th Street. Lisa Phillips, director of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, juried the exhibition.