CAA News Today
CAA Table Talk, November 18, 2020
posted by Allison Walters — Nov 24, 2020
We’re delighted to introduce CAA members to a new series of conversations between Meme Omogbai, our executive director and CEO, and N. Elizabeth Schlatter, the president of the CAA Board of Directors. Amidst so much change in our lives, workplaces, and world, CAA leadership sat down for an informal chat on how CAA is reshaping its efforts to provide access and resources where members need it most. Meme and Elizabeth will speak on the economic implications of COVID-19, the urgent importance of members’ scholarship, and the changing terrain of this cultural moment.
This discussion is centered around the Annual Conference and CAA’s pivot towards a digital-first platform, inspired by many of the questions submitted by members.
We would love to hear your questions for future CAA Table Talk conversations. Please send them in advance to: caanews@collegeart.org
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Meme Omogbai is Executive Director and CEO of College Art Association (CAA). Before joining CAA, Omogbai served as a member and past Board Chair of the New Jersey Historic Trust, one of four landmark entities dedicated to preservation of the state’s historic and cultural heritage and Montclair State University’s Advisory Board. Named one of 25 Influential Black Women in Business by The Network Journal, Meme has over 25 years of experience in corporate, government, higher education, and museum sectors. As the first American of African descent to chair the American Alliance of Museums, Omogbai led an initiative to rebrand the AAM as a global, inclusive alliance. While COO and Trustee, she spearheaded a major transformation in operating performance at the Newark Museum. During her time as Deputy Assistant Chancellor of New Jersey’s Department of Higher Education, Omogbai received Legislative acknowledgement and was recognized with the New Jersey Meritorious Service Award for her work on college affordability initiatives for families. Omogbai received her MBA from Rutgers University and holds a CPA. She did post-graduate work at Harvard University’s Executive Management Program and has earned the designation of Chartered Global Management Accountant. She studied global museum executive leadership at the J. Paul Getty Trust Museum Leadership Institute, where she also served on the faculty.
Elizabeth Schlatter is the President of the CAA Board of Directors and Deputy Director and Curator of Exhibitions at the University of Richmond Museums, Virginia. A museum administrator, curator, and writer, she focuses on modern and contemporary art and on topics related to curating and issues specific to university museums. At UR, she has curated more than 20 exhibitions, including recent group exhibitions of contemporary art such as “Crooked Data: (Mis)Information in Contemporary Art,” “Anti-Grand: Contemporary Perspectives on Landscape,” and “Art=Text=Art: Works by Contemporary Artists.” She also serves on and chairs various University and School of Arts & Sciences committees. Prior to the University of Richmond, she worked with exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) in Washington, D.C, and in fundraising at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston. She is author ofMuseum Careers: A Practical Guide for Novices and Students (Left Coast Press, Inc.) and a contributor to A Life in Museums: Managing Your Museum Career (American Association of Museums). She has a BA in art history from Southwestern University in Texas, and an MA in art history from George Washington University.
CWA Picks for November 2020
posted by Allison Walters — Nov 13, 2020
November CWA Picks
November Picks from the Committee on Women in the Arts celebrate an array of exhibitions and public artworks featuring feminist and womxn artists in this transitional time. As always, our global highlights are informed by shows and events that explore social justice issues and intersectional feminism.
© Eunice Golden 2006
“Metamorphosis #17” Acrylic on Canvas
48″ x 60″
- The Shape Of Play: Sari Carel’s recent public art installation at Waterfront Park in Boston pushes the boundaries of modern art, sound art, childhood and play through this heavily researched and process oriented, interactive work. For more information on the piece, you can also visit here and here.
- Eunice Golden: Metamorphosis: SAPAR Contemporary presents the gallery’s first exhibition devoted to renowned artist and radical feminist Eunice Golden’s (b. 1927, Brooklyn) late paintings and prints, and an opportunity to celebrate her enduring contributions to feminism and activism since the earliest years of the feminist art movement. The exhibition features her recent large-scale series, Metamorphosis (2003-2007) and Flora (2009), evoking her early sexual bodyscapes and exploring through gestural expanse of color, rapid brushwork, and hypnotic patterning, contemporary issues around ecological uncertainties and challenges. Through Nov. 28, 2020.
- Feminist perspectives in artistic productions and art theories: The Artium Museum 2-day course directed by Directed by Xabier Arakistain, art curator, and Lourdes Méndez, professor of anthropology of art at the UPV / EHU, includes a variety of speakers around contributions of feminist artists and theorists of art and the theoretical and political problems that must be faced today in order to continue developing and disseminating art and knowledge free from androcentric and ethnocentric biases. Nov. 14-15, 2020.
- Jo Ractliffe: DRIVES: Chicago Art Institute presents the first survey of South African photographer Jo Ractliffe (b. 1961), featuring more than 100 large scale color prints, video and documentary photographs spanning her career, including dreamlike photographs made in the 1990s of the port city of Durban and on a cross-country road trip, the unsettling installation N1 Incident/End of Time(1997/99), and much more. Through April 26, 2021.
- Baltimore Museum of Art presents several current exhibitions centered on women artists and ideas. Perfect Power: Motherhood and African Art includes 40 representing the power of African mothers and maternal imagery, through Jan. 17, 2021. Candice Breitz: Too Long, Didn’t Read features two muiltichannel video installations by the South-African born artist on privilege, visibility and the fetishizing of celebrity, through Jan. 10, 2021. Shinique Smith: Grace Stands Beside, is a new deity-like figurative sculpture by the artist who was raised in Baltimore, using Baltimore resident’s donated fabric to exude, said the artist “a complex state of being that Black people and other who have endured tragic prejudice have embodied to survive and rise beyond,” through Jan. 3, 2021. SHAN Wallace: 410 is an immersive collaged environment installation by the Baltimore based artist SHAN Wallace, through Jan. 3, 2021. Other notable exhibits include: Katharina Grosse: Is It You?, Valerie Maynard: Lost and Found; Ana Mendieta: Blood Inside Outside; Howardena Pindell: Free, White and 21; Jo Small: Flying with Remnant Wings; Elissa Blount Moorhead and Bradford Young: Back and Song; all through Jan. 3, 2021.
Affiliated Society News: November 2020
posted by Allison Walters — Nov 06, 2020
Affiliated Society News shares the new and exciting things CAA’s affiliated organizations are working on including activities, awards, publications, conferences, and exhibitions.
Interested in becoming an Affiliated Society? Learn more here.
American Institute for Conservation
Conservators around the world will answer questions about their work on Ask a Conservator Day, November 18th, 2020. We hold Ask a Conservator day in November in remembrance of the flooding of Florence on November 4th, 1966, which damaged priceless cultural heritage. However, in response to the catastrophe, incredible efforts were made—and are still being undertaken—to conserve the items impacted by the flood.
Ask a Conservator Day follows in the spirit of that international collaboration and exchange of knowledge. We celebrate the growth of the field inspired by the response to the flood through this opportunity for people to learn about conservation and preservation directly from conservators on social media.
Ask questions on subjects, mediums, and topics that interest you, or see if your favorite cultural heritage institution is participating. Last year’s subjects included discussion on favorite projects, career advice, everything—including grossest collection item or condition issue encountered. Use the hashtag #AskAConservator on social media platforms (such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram) to catch up with previous discussion and join in the conversation on the 18th!
Association of Print Scholars
The Feminist Art Project
Rejoinder Call for Submissions — Climate in Crisis
“Climate change,” as former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson so astutely notes, “requires a feminist solution.” Global heating is causing rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and the circulation of new pathogens. It impacts economically, socially, and politically marginalized people and communities most severely. Women and children, the majority of the world’s poor, are already disproportionately burdened by its effects. In the Global North, the climate breakdown compounds the environmental racism that many communities of color already experience. Unless the richer, whiter nations of the Global North make a seismic shift in their priorities, experts predict that the Global South will bear the brunt of the climate emergency, with dire consequences inevitable.
This issue of Rejoinder will address the climate crisis in our midst. Submissions (including essays, commentary, criticism, fiction, poetry, and artwork) should address this theme from feminist, queer, social and racial justice-inspired perspectives. We particularly welcome contributions at the intersection of scholarship and activism. For manuscript preparation details, please visit: https://irw.rutgers.edu/about-rejoinder. Rejoinder is an online journal published by the Institute for Research on Women at Rutgers University in partnership with The Feminist Art Project. Please send completed written work (2,000-2,500 words max), jpegs of artwork, and short bios to the editor, Sarah Tobias (stobias@rutgers.edu) by January 6, 2021.
Society for Architectural Historians
The Call for Session Proposals for the Society of Architectural Historians’ 2022 Annual International Conference in Pittsburgh has opened. Please visit the call here: https://www.sah.org/2022/call-for-sessions
Society of Contemporary Art Historians (SCAH)
Announcing New Initiatives of the Society of Contemporary Art Historians
The Society of Contemporary Art Historians (SCAH), an affiliate society of the College Art Association, is proud to announce the launch of several new projects, publications, and initiatives aimed at promoting equitable and transcultural histories of contemporary art.
Online Programming
Following the widespread shift to online programming in the wake of Covid-19, SCAH presented several virtual programs that were well attended by an international audience. These included a screening of films by artist Nancy Holt followed by a conversation between Kirsten Swenson and Rebecca Uchill; a conversation between video artists Meriem Bennani, Orian Barki, and Marisa Olson; and the panel discussion “Toward an Anti-Racist Contemporary Art History,” featuring the art and architectural historians and curators Amy K. Hamlin, Christina Knight, Ana María León, Alpesh Kantilal Patel, and Ellen Y. Tani. Archived videos from these events are available to view on the SCAH website. A follow-up anti-racist contemporary art history bibliography edit-a-thon is scheduled for Friday, December 4th, 2020 and will be complemented by a related workshop to be scheduled in January 2021. Our 2021 CAA panel focuses on the subject of “Aggregators and Agitators” and will be announced alongside the annual conference’s schedule.
New SCAH Publication: Foreign Language Index
SCAH has published the inaugural issue of a new open-access publication, Foreign Language Index (FLI), which is available here via the SCAH website. This annual journal comprises abstracts and commentary on recent non-anglophone contemporary art history scholarship. The first issue compiles entries by international contributors working across sixteen languages: Albanian, Arabic, Chinese, Danish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.
Curatorial Opportunity
In an effort to respond quickly to diminished exhibition opportunities for artists in the wake of Covid-19, SCAH turned its website over to current and recent graduates of the MFA Program in Art Practice at Stanford University. Images of their work populates multiple pages throughout the organization’s presence; more information about the artists can be found here. Moving forward, SCAH’s website will continue to serve as a rotating online exhibition platform. Accordingly, SCAH currently seeks candidates to fill a newly established curator-at-large position on its executive board. Position details can be found here.
Membership
The organization recently revised its membership categories, making it easy to join SCAH at varying levels of support. Members can now access more information about members’ ongoing projects and connect with others in the SCAH community through the site.
SECAC
2020 Conference Updates
VCUarts will host SECAC 2020 from November 30 to December 11. The fully virtual conference will have over 80 breakout sessions, plenary events, and networking opportunities, including:
- Keynote Lecture by Valerie Cassel Oliver, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
- Virtual Juried Exhibition at the Virtual Anderson at VCUarts, with remarks and Best-in-Show awards presented by Juror Sarah Eckhardt, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
- Racial Justice Town Hall hosted by the SECAC Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee and facilitated by Marian Vassar
- SECAC Mentorship Program
To register for the conference, please visit: https://secac.secure-platform.com/a/solicitations/10/home
The preliminary schedule is now available on our virtual conference platform:
https://secac.secure-platform.com/a/solicitations/9/sessiongallery/schedule
Questions regarding the conference should be directed to Conference Director Carly Phinizy, secac2020@vcu.edu.
Call for Applications: SECAC Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Awards
To recognize the exceptional work of those ndividuals historically underrepresented in SECAC, higher education, and arts institutions, applications are now being accepted for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Awards, which cover the cost of conference registration plus two years of SECAC membership for five recipients.
Qualifications:
- Those who have been underrepresented in their field for any reason, but especially due to race, are welcomed to apply.
- Preference is given to SECAC 2020 selected session chairs, presenters, or Juried Exhibition artists who are current members.
To Apply:
Submit a brief CV (3 pages max) with full contact information and a statement (250 words max) explaining how your participation furthers the goals of this award to SECACaction@gmail.com.
Deadline: 11/13/2020*
*Those selected for this award must complete membership and conference registration paperwork with SECAC prior to receiving funding.
William Morris Society in the United States
The William Morris Society in the United States strives to publicize the life and work of William Morris and his associates. Members receive the print newsletter, Useful & Beautiful and the biannual Journal of William Morris Studies, along with a digital version of the William Morris Magazine from London. The Society offers the annual Joseph R. Dunlap Memorial Fellowship and its activities encompass lectures, conferences, social gatherings, and site visits.
The society will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary in 2021. We shall be presenting panels (virtually) at the Modern Language Association Annual Convention in January on the topics of “Morris and Biography: Letters Archives, Artifacts” and “Revisiting William Morris and the Arts and Crafts: Reception and Influence,” the second sponsored with the Forums on Book History, Print Cultures, and Lexicography. Our session at CAA, entitled “William Morris Today,” will hold its live discussion on Saturday, February 13 at 6:00pm. We will also have our business meeting and organize a virtual visit to the Grolier Club, where librarian Meghan Constantinou will show off the club’s remarkable Morris and private press-related related holdings. Visit our website for further information: www.morrissociety.org.
In the works are a new website, online presentations by Society members (two on collecting Morris’s books), and participation in worldwide exhibitions and a UK symposium to mark the 130th anniversary of the founding of the Kelmscott Press.
Women and Voter Suppression: A Roundtable Discussion
posted by Allison Walters — Nov 02, 2020
In honor of Election Day, we present a roundtable discussion from the 108th CAA Annual Conference in Chicago on women and voter suppression. Sponsored by the Committee on Women in the Arts, this session took place on February 13, 2020.
Chairs: Sally Brown, West Virginia University; Liz Kim, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Discussants: Karen Mary Davalos, University of Minnesota; Jo-Ann Morgan; Marshall Reese, of LigoranoReese, Independent Artists
This session considers how artists and scholars have explored voter suppression as a subject matter across historical and cultural boundaries with a view toward examining the present. In the US, voter suppression targets particularly women who are black, immigrant, elderly, young, low-income and disabled, keeping them from the polls. Since 2010, 25 states have placed new restrictions that make the exercise of fundamental voting rights harder. This change has been exacerbated by the 2013 Supreme Court ruling that struck down a key provision in the 1965 Voting Rights Act, enabling states to institute discriminatory voting laws. The legacy of Jim Crow laws persists through these recent shifts in policy, while disproportionally affecting growing voter groups such as Latino/a voters in the US. In these political times, historical lessons can be drawn from the past, in the ways women have collectively fought against political silencing. Our roundtable panelists address and illuminate how artists and activists work and have worked creatively to resist and fight voter suppression for women, as well as reflect on broader political suppression issues for women voters. From the Chicana feminist art of the 1970s, to the imagery of the revolutionary women of the Black Power Movement, to public art interventions in the Trump era, this session aims to take a broad and reflective approach to this politically urgent topic.
CWA Picks for October 2020
posted by CAA — Oct 15, 2020
October Picks from the Committee on Women in the Arts celebrate the return of major international museum surveys dedicated to the creativity and power of women artists throughout the centuries, drawing attention to the seventeenth-century Italian Baroque master Artemisia Gentileschi, Venezuela’s twentieth-century Concrete sculptor Gego, and the women of Surrealism. As always, our global highlights are informed by shows and events that explore social justice issues and intersectional feminism.
Cauleen Smith, Human_3.0 Reading List: Angela Davis. Women, Race, and Class, 2015 Graphite and acrylic on paper
One Million Roses for Angela Davis
October 10, 2020–January 24, 2021
Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, Dresden
Celebrating the singular life of Black activist and feminist Angela Davis, One Million Roses takes a closer look at Davis’s complex cultural relationship with East Germany almost fifty years after the launch of the postcard campaign, “A million roses for Angela,” in 1970-72, when she was held in prison under terrorism charges. This exhibition builds upon the formative commitment to Davis’s revolutionary aims, ideologies, and actions that was supported by the GDR, where she was welcomed as a state guest after release. On display are works by contemporary international artists who acknowledge and promote Davis’s calls for hope and non-racist democracy.
Until January 24, 2021
The National Gallery, London
A major retrospective dedicated to the Baroque master Artemisia Gentileschi, following the artist’s career from Rome to Florence, Venice, Naples, and London; includes the artist’s recently discovered personal letters, and promotes virtual events unearthing Gentileschi’s dramatic life and tremendous production.
October 9, 2020–March 21, 2021
Guggenheim Museum, New York
The first major retrospective survey in New York dedicated to the career of Venezuelan artist Gertrud Goldschmidt, known as Gego (b. 1912, Hamburg, Germany), a pioneer of postwar geometric abstraction and kinetic art, whose early career as an architect and engineer galvanized new spatial modalities in sculpture, textile, print and drawing.
Real and Imagined: Fabric Works and Video Animations by Heidi Kumao
September 15, 2020–December 4, 2020
Stamps Schools of Art & Design, Ann Arbor, MI
Heidi Kumao’s narrative fabric works and experimental animations are on view in this singular exhibition that explores the pervasive dynamics of sexual power, trauma, and incident. The title, “Real and Imagined,” underscores the contradictions of women’s voices in the public realm, inspired by testimonials and experiences from the #MeToo movement, when ‘truth’ and ‘memory’ are inevitably questioned or dismissed. Kumao’s industrial felt works utilize interesting references to simple quotidian objects—chairs, roots, ladders—allowing narrative to unfold in subtle ways as the images and stories are constructed and abstractly revealed on the heavy felt surfaces.
Curator Sabine Folie
September 30, 2020–January 10, 2021
LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz
To honor Valie Export’s 80th birthday, LENTOS has organized an exhibition dedicated to the “history of the body,” a theme broadly negotiated throughout the artist’s early career and further explored in the context of the technological and digital age. On view are early works from the 1970s and contemporary projects, including performative actions, conceptual photographs, and “re-enactments” of Old Masters.
July 25–November 8, 2020
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, in cooperation with Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt
This presentation explores the contributions and positions of 34 women artists from Europe, the US, and Mexico who were identified with the art historical movement of Surrealism or connected to surrealistic activities beyond the status of muse or model. Fantastic Women features well-known figures, such as Louise Bourgeois, Frida Kahlo, Leonora Carrington, and Meret Oppenheim, among other pivotal figures, such as Kay Sage, Leonor Fini and Toyen.
What Are You Voting For? A Virtual Exhibition
October 9–31, 2020
Woman Made Art Gallery, Chicago, IL
Jurors: Karen Gutfreund + Sherri Cornett | Gutfreund Cornett Art
In response to the November 2020 US elections, Woman Made Gallery (WMG) has organized a virtual exhibition of 37 “self-identified” women artists whose artworks address pressing topics about race, intersectionality, politics, privilege, health care, as well as other groundbreaking subjects. Exhibiting artists include: Beth Costello, Alicia Decker, Jacqueline DesForges, Karen Fiorito, Lisa Freeman, Christine Giancola, Linda Gleitz, Leah Golberstein, Jae Green, Susan Hale, LucyJulia Hale, Edwina Jaques, Tulika Ladsariya, Beth Lakamp, Holly Ballard Martz, Sandy Mayo, Penny McElroy, Cristin Millett, Cherie M Redlinger, Sawyer Rose, Caren Helene Rudman, Gigi Salij, Sarah Schneiderman, Suzannah Schreckhise, Durba Sen, Sarah Sipling, Pauline Hudel Smith, Laurie Szujewska, Salma Taman, Millette Tapiador, Amy Usdin, Winnie van der Rijn, Mary Vaneecke, Michelle Victoria, Dominique Vitali, Kelsey Merreck Wagner, Maria Wolf.
Recording now available–CAA Table Talk: Education and the Arts in a Time of Crisis
posted by CAA — Oct 05, 2020
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
12:00-12:30 PM (ET)
Free and open to the public
CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE CONVERSATION
We’re delighted to introduce CAA members to a new series of conversations between Meme Omogbai, our executive director and CEO, and N. Elizabeth Schlatter, the president of the CAA Board of Directors. Amidst so much change in our lives, workplaces, and world, join CAA leadership for an informal chat on how CAA is reshaping its efforts to provide access and resources where members need it most. Meme and Elizabeth will speak on the economic implications of COVID-19, the urgent importance of members’ scholarship, and the changing terrain of this cultural moment.
For best results, we recommend using the most up-to-date version of Chrome as your web browser. The conversation will be recorded and shared afterwards.
We would love to hear your questions, too. Please send them in advance to: caanews@collegeart.org
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Meme Omogbai is Executive Director and CEO of College Art Association (CAA). Before joining CAA, Omogbai served as a member and past Board Chair of the New Jersey Historic Trust, one of four landmark entities dedicated to preservation of the state’s historic and cultural heritage and Montclair State University’s Advisory Board. Named one of 25 Influential Black Women in Business by The Network Journal, Meme has over 25 years of experience in corporate, government, higher education, and museum sectors. As the first American of African descent to chair the American Alliance of Museums, Omogbai led an initiative to rebrand the AAM as a global, inclusive alliance. While COO and Trustee, she spearheaded a major transformation in operating performance at the Newark Museum. During her time as Deputy Assistant Chancellor of New Jersey’s Department of Higher Education, Omogbai received Legislative acknowledgement and was recognized with the New Jersey Meritorious Service Award for her work on college affordability initiatives for families. Omogbai received her MBA from Rutgers University and holds a CPA. She did post-graduate work at Harvard University’s Executive Management Program and has earned the designation of Chartered Global Management Accountant. She studied global museum executive leadership at the J. Paul Getty Trust Museum Leadership Institute, where she also served on the faculty.
N. Elizabeth Schlatter is the President of the CAA Board of Directors and Deputy Director and Curator of Exhibitions at the University of Richmond Museums, Virginia. A museum administrator, curator, and writer, she focuses on modern and contemporary art and on topics related to curating and issues specific to university museums. At UR, she has curated more than 20 exhibitions, including recent group exhibitions of contemporary art such as “Crooked Data: (Mis)Information in Contemporary Art,” “Anti-Grand: Contemporary Perspectives on Landscape,” and “Art=Text=Art: Works by Contemporary Artists.” She also serves on and chairs various University and School of Arts & Sciences committees. Prior to the University of Richmond, she worked with exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) in Washington, D.C, and in fundraising at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston. She is author of Museum Careers: A Practical Guide for Novices and Students (Left Coast Press, Inc.) and a contributor to A Life in Museums: Managing Your Museum Career (American Association of Museums). She has a BA in art history from Southwestern University in Texas, and an MA in art history from George Washington University.
International News: The Treasures of the Punjab Archives, Lahore, Pakistan
posted by CAA — Sep 28, 2020
The following article was written in response to a call for submissions by CAA’s International Committee. It is by Kanwal Khalid, Director of the Punjab Archives, Lahore, Pakistan, and an alumna of the CAA-Getty International Program.
Figure 1. The Punjab Archives, housed in the Tomb of Anarkali, a building from the reign of Mughal Emperor Jahangir (1605-1627). (All photographs in this article provided by the author)
Having spent my career as a university professor, I recently was appointed the director of the Punjab Archives in Lahore. This rich collection is one of the best in South Asia and I am pleased to share a description of the institution, which also includes a library and museum, with readers of CAA News, who will soon be able to access many of the collection’s materials online.
The history of every nation is important and documents that reveal a nation’s history become increasingly precious over time. The majority of these documents are held in archives—collections that are both accumulations of historical data and repositories of record. Pakistan contains many rich archival collections: The National Archives of Pakistan and the National Documentation Centre, both located in Islamabad; the Sindh Archives in Karachi; and the Baluchistan Archives in Quetta. But the oldest of them all is the Punjab Archives in Lahore, located inside the Tomb of Anarkali.
The Punjab Archives is significant both for the immense value of its holdings and for the historical importance of its building (Fig.1), which was built during the reign of Mughal Emperor Jahangir (1605-1627). It was originally a tomb attributed to a woman named Anarkali, traditionally thought to be a concubine of Jahangir’s. According to the date written on the cenotaph, the monument was completed in 1615. The building has witnessed many ups and downs in its four-hundred-year history. After the annexation of Punjab by the British in 1849, the building was used as storage for documents pouring in from all parts of South Asia that were under the control of the British Raj. Two years later it became a church used for Sunday services, but in 1891 it was declared a record office.
Figure 2. Inside view of the Archives.
Punjab Archives Collection
The Punjab Archives (Figs. 2, 3a-b) holds one of the largest repositories of documents in South Asia and it is responsible for the safekeeping of official documents and records of the Pakistan government. It houses census reports, civil and military gazettes, official files, historical documents, manuscripts, handouts, brochures, pamphlets, maps, notifications, memoranda, lithographs, research papers, journals, magazines, newspapers and periodicals. Many of these cannot be found anywhere else in the world. The archive also includes a fine collection of miniature paintings and seals.
The records in the Punjab Archives date back to the seventeenth century and cover the Mughal, precolonial, colonial and postcolonial eras in South Asia. Primarily the collection consists of:
- Persian Record of Mughal Period, 1629-1858
- Persian Record of Sikh Period, 1799-1849
- Akhbar Darbar-e-Lahore (Daily Court Proceedings of Sikh Rulers), 1835-1849
- Persian Record of British Period, 1809-1890
- Old Persian Newspapers, 1840-1845
- Colonial Agencies Record, 1804-1849
- Record of Princely States in Punjab, 1849-1947
- Record After the Annexation, 1849 to 1947
- Record After Independence, 1947
Figure 3a, b. Beautifully illuminated wooden boards used as file holders, first half of 19th century.
The Archival Library
Sir Edward Meclagan served as chancellor of University of the Punjab (1919-1924) and Governor of Punjab (1923). He was a historian whose passion for knowledge is evidenced by his donation of rare and out of print books to the Archives. This initiative led to the establishment of a small but important library that still exists today.
Figure 4. The oldest book in the Archives Library, Sir Thomas Roe’s Journal, 1616.
The collection consists of biographies, reports and travelogues. Currently the library holds more than 70,000 highly valuable reference books. The oldest book is a memoir, Journal of Sir Thomas Roe, which dates to 1616 and recounts the author’s journey to different parts of India (Fig. 4).
Figure 5. The central hall of the tomb, housing the Archives Museum.
Archives Museum
Another person who played an important role for the Archives was Lord Malcolm Hailey. He went one step beyond his predecessor and established a small museum in 1924 in the central hall of the tomb (Fig. 5). This collection, still maintained today, contains portraits of important Lahore personalities (Fig. 6), along with paintings, prints, maps and lithographs. Mughal Farmans (proclamations), important official letters, old stamps, medals, weapons, and miniatures are also on display (Fig. 7).
Digitization
Figure 7. A message from the Queen of England to the viceroy on the completion of the telegraph line to India, 1860.
Figure 6. A general of Ranjit Singh’s army, General Avitabile, early 19th century.
For the past several years, the Punjab Archives has been in the process of digitizing its collection to improve accessibility to scholars. Approximately 500,000 pages of historic documents are currently being scanned and catalogued, precluding the need to move the fragile original documents, thus minimizing their wear and tear. A web portal will make these digitized documents accessible under the authorization of the Punjab Archives. This project is a first step towards a long-term strategy of modernizing the Punjab Archives and Libraries. To date, more then 120,000 pages have been digitized. Although the project was scheduled to be completed by June 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought all activities to a standstill. Once completed, the archives online services will be a primary resource for scholars throughout the world. In the meantime we are providing information to any researcher who contacts the Archives Department by email at archivesdirectorate@gmail.com.
CWA Picks for September 2020
posted by CAA — Sep 10, 2020
Chiara Fumai, The Book of Evil Spirits, 2015. Film still. On view at the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève through January 3, 2021. Courtesy the Church of Chiara Fumai
September picks by the Committee on Women in the Arts include a range of online and in-person exhibitions and events featuring works of women artists breaking boundaries. This month we focus on practices that explore boundaries, whether material, conceptual or methodological, and which performatively address space. Often, threshold spaces, literal and metaphorical, are interrogated in order to further explore the potential of the arts in creating change and claiming an equal and just society.
September 4 – 27, 2020
Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
A virtual exhibit with works by 120 artists from the United States, Austria, Canada, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Nigeria, and Turkey and in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, print-making, sculpture, photography, digital works and video, exploring the concept of loss.
September 7 – October 15, 2020
Richard Saltoun, online event
An online exhibition featuring a range of photographic works produced by Jo Spence, including her early commercial works as well as activist, feminist and social photography.
September 5, 2020 – January 7, 2021
Fondazione Berengo, Venice, Italy
An exhibition featuring works of art in glass produced by over sixty contemporary female artists from Europe, the United States, Latin America, Iran, and South Korea. Held in the heart of Murano in the Fondazione Berengo Art Space, an old glass furnace, it references and honors the history of the island and its relationship with glass production and its innovation. The works in the exhibition reference potentialities of glass and its transparency as a metaphor for the future healed from the scars from history.
November 4, 2020 – January 3, 2021
Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
The exhibition presents the first retrospective of Chiara Fumai’s works in which the artist developed the language of performance and made a significant contribution to the feminist aesthetics in the 21st century. Producing uncomfortable situations and environments through the use of concepts of boredom, threat, offense, revolt, vandalism and violence, she explored her ideals of anarchist feminism.
October 2, 2020 – January 3, 2021
Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich, Switzerland
The exhibition features the installation to the operetta which has been developed by Agnes Scherer since 2015. The production will be animated by the artist with Tobias Textor, Soya Arakawa and Claudia Barth at the opening on October 2nd, and on December 8th and 10th. Scherer’s operetta draws inspiration from theatre forms and versatile formats of presentation to activate work of art and give it a magical power.
September 23, 2020 – January 3, 2021
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France
After being closed due to the COVID-19 health emergency, the Fondation Louis Vuitton reopens on September 23rd with the exhibition featuring 170 works by Cindy Sherman produced between 1975 and 2020, including very recent and unseen series. To coincide with the retrospective, the Fondation will also present a selection of works from its Collection brought together under the title “Crossing Views.” Chosen together with Cindy Sherman and echoing her work, the artworks focus on the theme of the portrait and its interpretations in different mediums and disciplines.
An Update from the Executive Director on CAA 2021
posted by CAA — Sep 09, 2020
Dear CAA Members,
We write to update you on planning for the CAA 2021 Annual Conference. The Annual Conference Committee has read and reviewed over 800 session proposals and identified those to be included in the robust program, which includes 350 sessions.
CAA will hold its 109th Annual Conference as a virtual program on February 10–13, 2021, with 30 percent of conference content concerning the topic of climate crisis. Scholars and practitioners will address the environment not only through the content of artworks but also by speaking to how we can and should change our professional practices in light of this crisis.
The program for CAA 2021 reflects the vast scholarship and practice of CAA members and includes an impressive number of sessions focused on global and environmental issues with significant (though not exclusive) emphasis on the contemporary. Intersectional content is strongly represented, including sessions concerning race and gender and race and ecology. The practical consequences of COVID-19 are also evident, particularly as related to exhibitions, research, and teaching. This focus reflects the impact of the pandemic on the field, the uncertain future for institutions and individuals, and the sudden greater reliance on technology to solve problems in an ever-changing environment.
Providing content in a virtual format for 2021 preserves and enhances access to the program and allows conference attendance to be expanded beyond its usual boundaries. Individuals will have extended opportunities to hear session content on their own schedules between adjunct positions, family care, and other obligations. Both those who have never attended the CAA Annual Conference and those who haven’t recently will discover new ways to join the community and hear scholarship and practice.
Session presenters will upload their prerecorded presentations, which conference registrants may access online shortly before and through the conference dates. Live Q&A will be scheduled for each session between February 10 and 13, providing the collegial, interactive, and accountable engagement created by attending sessions as a community. Questions about session presentations may be submitted to session chairs after viewing a session in advance of the scheduled live Q&A. Uploaded content will be accessible to registrants for a limited time after the conference dates. We will provide detailed information for presenters and attendees closer to the conference.
We are currently creating the schedule and will be addressing other program components in the early fall. The full program will be posted when the Annual Conference website opens in November. Registration will also open at that time.
Thank you for your patience and flexibility over the next couple of months as the planning continues. We have been creating a list to address your frequently asked questions; please email additional questions to programs@collegeart.org. We look forward to coming together virtually to share scholarship and practice in community.
Best wishes,
Meme Omogbai
Executive Director and CEO
Affiliated Society News for September 2020
posted by CAA — Sep 01, 2020
Affiliated Society News shares the new and exciting things CAA’s affiliated organizations are working on including activities, awards, publications, conferences, and exhibitions.
Interested in becoming an Affiliated Society? Learn more here.
The Association for Textual Scholarship in Art History (ATSAH)
Announces two major changes: a new website: https://www.atsha.com/ and the formation of a new journal through Brill, A Journal of Contestations in the Arts https://brill.com/view/journals/para/para-overview.xml?lang=en.
Publications:
Liana De Girolami Cheney, Lavinia Fontana’s Mythological Paintings: Art, Beauty, and Wisdom. London: Cambridge Scholar Press, 2020.
Liana De Girolami Cheney, “Botticelli’s Minerva and the Centaur: Artistic and Metaphysical Conceits,” Journal of Culture and Religious Studies Vol. 8, No. 4 (April 2020): 187–216.
BSA (Bibliographical Society of America)
- October 15: Applications due for the BSA’s Call for Program Proposals. The BSA sponsors lectures, workshops, conference sessions, and receptions which are bibliographical in nature. Only virtual events considered at this time. See https://bibsocamer.org/programs/bsa-programs/.
- September 8, applications due BSA’s 2021 New Scholars Program. Those who have not previously published, lectured, or taught on bibliographical subjects are encouraged to apply. New approaches and diverse perspectives welcome. International applicants and joint applications accepted. See https://bibsocamer.org/awards/new-scholars-program/.
- November 1, applications due: BSA Fellowships. To foster the study of books and other textual artifacts in traditional and emerging formats. See https://bibsocamer.org/awards/fellowships/.
- November 2, applications due: William L. Mitchell Prize for research on British serials. Supports bibliographical scholarship on 18th-century periodicals in any language within the British Isles, its colonies, former colonies, and occupied territories. See https://bibsocamer.org/awards/william-l-mitchell-prize/.
- Ongoing: Community Subtitling Project: The BSA provides free public programming, accessible through the BSA’s YouTube channel. We offer free one year memberships to all who submit complete translations of edited English transcripts of individual videos. A guide to editing English subtitles and to adding foreign language translations can be viewed here. La guía también está disponible en español, aquí.
- September 2020 (vol 114:3), The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America:
Articles
J. Christopher Warner, “Recovered Books: On the Contents and Fate of John Fowler’s Stock Left with Christopher Plantin”
Tara L. Lyons, “New Evidence for Ben Jonson’s Epigrammes (ca. 1612) in Bodleian Library Records”
Bibliographical Note
Minoru Mihara, “Recycled and Reincarnated Relics of Ancient Poetry: Editorial Practice in Percy’s Reliques”
Book Reviews
Proot, Goran, McKitterick, David, Nuovo, Angela, and Gehl, Paul F., eds. Lux Librorum: Essays on Books and History for Chris Coppens
Reviewed by Sandro Jung
Eggert, Paul. The Work and the Reader in Literary Studies: Scholarly Editing and Book History
Reviewed by Anna Muenchrath
Barker, Nicolas. At First, All Went Well … & Other Brief Lives
Reviewed by Daniel J. Slive
Eckhardt, Joshua. Religion Around John Donne
Reviewed by Georgina Wilson
SHERA
SHERA Publication Grant—Deadline: October 15, 2020
The Society of Historians of Eastern European, Eurasian, and Russian Art and Architecture (SHERA) is pleased to announce the SHERA Publication Grant. The $3000 grant supports the realization of publications of the highest scholarly and intellectual quality in the field of Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian art and architecture. The grant is intended to offset the substantial production expenses associated with the publication of an art-historical monograph, edited volume, or exhibition catalogue. Book projects must have been accepted by a publisher in order to be considered. Funds may be directed toward production costs and does not fund research, writing, or editorial labor. Applicants do not need to be SHERA members to apply, but the recipient must join in order to accept the award. For more information about applying, see http://www.shera-art.org/grants/publication-grant.php.
SHERA Emerging Scholar Prize–Deadline: Oct. 15, 2020.
The SHERA Board is pleased to invite applications for the 2020 Emerging Scholar Prize. The Emerging Scholar Prize aims to recognize and encourage original and innovative scholarship in the field of East European, Eurasian, and Russian art and architectural history. Applicants must have published an English-language article in a scholarly print or online journal, or museum print or online publication within the twelve-month period preceding the application deadline. Additionally, applicants are required to have received their PhD within the last 5 years and be a member of SHERA in good standing at the time that the application is submitted. The winner will be awarded $500 and republication (where copyright allows) or citation of the article on H-SHERA. For more information about applying, see http://www.shera-art.org/grants/emerging-scholar-prize.php.
American Society of Appraisers (ASA)
The American Society of Appraisers (ASA) wishes to spotlight its Personal Property sessions and experts for the upcoming 2020 ASA International Conference to be held virtually online October 12-13. Click here to learn more.
ALAA (Association for Latin American Art)
Please note that this is a living document; if there is a resource that you would like to see included or corrected, please follow the link above and there is a hyperlink where you can submit suggestions/changes.
Society of Architectural Historians
The Society of Architectural Historians is accepting proposals for SAH 2021 Virtual Programs to be presented after the SAH 74th Annual International Conference in Montréal on dates/times between May 3–28, 2021. These programs will complement the regular conference programming and should differ from the paper sessions in both topic and organization. Submissions that address the current conditions of research, teaching, and scholarship are encouraged. Submit a proposal by September 14, 2020.
SAH is accepting applications for Membership Grants for Emerging Professionals. These awards are intended for emerging scholars, regardless of age or employment status, who are new to the field of architectural history or its related disciplines. The award consists of a one-year digital SAH Individual membership. Emerging scholars who are adjuncts or unemployed are encouraged to apply. Apply by September 15, 2020.
The SAH Nominating Committee seeks nominations and self-nominations for two officer positions of Treasurer and Secretary. As two of five officers with full voting rights on the Executive Committee and the Board, these positions are among the most important in SAH; the other officers on the Executive Committee are the President, First Vice President and Second Vice President. In close collaboration with the SAH Board and staff, the Executive Committee governs the Society, proposes policies and programs, and provides service to the membership. Serving in these capacities offers an opportunity to shape the Society’s and the profession’s future. Submit a nomination by September 30, 2020.
SAH will present the webinar “Disability Studies and Architectural History” on October 29, 2020. Presenters and participants will consider key concepts in research and pedagogical methods for integrating histories of disability and efforts to pursue disability justice in architecture. The discussion highlights the importance of disability activism as it relates to design. Registration is free and open to the public.
Association of Print Scholars
The Association of Print Scholars is happy to announce that Clare Rogan, Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Detroit Institute of Arts, has been elected as the APS Director-at-Large for a three-year term. Additionally, we would like to congratulate the APS Director-at-Large Jan Howard and APS member Tatiana Reinoza, PhD on their appointments to the National Advisory Committee of Artura, a project of Brandywine Workshop and Archives. Howard is the Chief Curator and Houghton P. Metcalf Jr. Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs at RISD Museum. Reinoza is the Assistant Professor of Art History and Latinx Studies at University of Notre Dame.
We are still accepting individual paper proposals for our 2021 CAA panel “The Graphic Conscience,” chaired by Dr. Ksenia Nouril, The Jensen Bryan Curator at The Print Center in Philadelphia. The session invites papers addressing transhistorical and transnational case studies of print as a tool for raising public consciousness.
APS is currently accepting submissions until January 31, 2021 for two awards. The first is the 2021 Schulman and Bullard Article Prize, which carries a $2,000 prize and is generously sponsored by Susan Schulman and Carolyn Bullard, both private print dealers. The second is the APS Collaboration Grant, which funds public programs and projects that foster collaboration between members of the print community and/or encourage dialogue between the print community and the general public. Further application information for the two awards can be found on the APS website.
SECAC
SECAC 2020
VCUarts is honored to host the SECAC 2020 conference as a fully virtual event beginning on November 30 and concluding on December 11, 2020. We are planning for more than 80 online sessions, round tables, and town halls at the 2020 conference. Additionally, we have exciting virtual programming for conference participants, including a keynote lecture by Valerie Cassel Oliver, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and a virtual Juried Members’ Exhibition in collaboration with the Anderson at VCUarts. We are also excited to announce reduced registration rates for members and non-members. For more information, please visit https://secacart.org/page/Richmond. Questions regarding the conference should be directed to 2020 Conference Director Carly Phinizy, secac2020@vcu.edu.
SECAC at CAA
The SECAC affiliate session at CAA in 2021 will be chaired by William Perthes of the Barnes Foundation and Adrian Banning from Drexel University. They will oversee a selection of speakers on the subject of, “Arts and Humanities Multidisciplinary Education Collaborations.”
SECAC Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
SECAC stands in solidarity with our Black colleagues, students, and communities to affirm Black Lives Matter. SECAC must resist the legacies of racism and white supremacy in our organization and disciplines. Together, we can imagine and create a better world, united in the pursuit of justice, equity, and transformation. We invite you to share your confidential feedback by email to SECAC’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee at SECACaction@gmail.com, and join in the SECAC Town Hall on Racial Justice during the 2020 virtual conference.
To recognize the exceptional work of those who are historically underrepresented in SECAC, higher education, and arts institutions, applications for the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) awards, which cover the cost of conference registration plus two years of SECAC membership for five selected awardees, are due September 30. For details on the award, contact SECACaction@gmail.com or visit the SECAC Awards page.
CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ SCHOLARS ASSOCIATION (CRSA)
https://www.catalogueraisonne.org/
The CRSA has recently added a profile interview article on the Betye Saar Catalogue Raisonné Project (https://www.catalogueraisonne.org/profiles) as well as a new installment of personal responses from the art research and publication community on how they are managing during the pandemic (https://www.catalogueraisonne.org/ellipsis).
Historians of Netherlandish Art
The open-access, peer-reviewed, semi-annual Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art (jhna.org) encourages submissions on Netherlandish, German, and Franco-Flemish art and architecture (c. 1350-1750) and its global reach, including topics of interest surrounding colonialism, the slave trade, and the markets that supported them.
Renaissance Society of America
2021 RSA Research Fellowships
The Renaissance Society of America’s Research Fellowships competition is underway and submissions are due by 15 September 2020. We are awarding fellowships of $2,000 to scholars working in the field of Renaissance studies (1300–1700). The application site and details about the application process, eligibility, residential fellowship, non-residential fellowships, and publication subventions can be found here. Please email the RSA with questions.