The Grapevine

James A. Porter Colloquium

Dear Supporters of the James A. Porter Colloquium:

We are pleased to announce that registration for the 31st Annual James A. Porter Colloquium is available at:
https://www.nga.gov/research/casva/meetings/porter-colloquium.html

The 31st Annual James A. Porter Colloquium on
African American Art and Art of the African Diaspora
“Defining Diaspora: 21st Century Developments in Art of the African Diaspora”
Friday, April 16, 2021, 4:30–6:00 p.m.

The 31st Annual James A. Porter Colloquium is co-presented by Howard University’s Department of Art, the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art and the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at University of Maryland, College Park. This year’s virtual program will explore the theme “Defining Diaspora: 21st Century Developments in Art of the African Diaspora.” Sessions will investigate the ways in which visual artists and scholars are defining, and redefining, the aesthetic contours and possibilities of the African Diaspora in American art spaces. Started in 1990 by art historian Dr. Floyd Coleman, the Porter Colloquium is the foremost academic setting for innovative dialogue and perspectives from leading and emerging scholars, artists, curators, and cultural critics.

The National Gallery of Art will live-stream presentations with online audience Q&A on Friday, April 16, 2021, 4:30-6:00 PM. Online registration is available at: https://www.nga.gov/research/casva/meetings/porter-colloquium.html

Generous programming support has been provided by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and Michael Rosenfeld Gallery.
James A. Porter Colloquium on African American Art and Art of the African Diaspora
This event brings together artists and art historians to explore the aesthetic practices, critical issues, and art historical interpretations of the art of the African Diaspora. To celebrate the centennial of Howard University’s department of art, we are honored to cosponsor this event.
www.nga.gov

2021 Porter Colloquium Honorees and Distinguished Speakers
Lifetime Achievement Awards
Renée Stout, artist

Freida High W. Tesfagiorgis, Evjue-Bascom Emerita Professor of African and African American Art History & Visual Culture, Departments of Afro-American Studies and Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

James A. Porter Book Award
Travel and See: Black Diaspora Art Practices Since 1980, by Kobena Mercer, Professor, History of Art and African American Studies, Department of the History of Art, Yale University

Full Program of Events

The 19th David C. Driskell Center Distinguished Lecture in the Visual Arts Series in Honor of David C. Driskell, hosted by The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, University of Maryland, College Park
Thursday, April 15, 6:00 PM EST           (Register at: https://driskellcenter.umd.edu/)

Prof. Curlee Holton, Director and Artist-in-Residence, David C. Driskell Center for the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora
“What’s Next? David C. Driskell Artist/Scholar/Activist: A model for future role and practices of African American Artists”

Porter Colloquium Keynote Lectures, co-sponsored with the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art, livestreamed on CASVA website, April 16, 4:30-6:00PM (Register at:  https://www.nga.gov/research/casva/meetings/porter-colloquium.html)

Porter Colloquium Opening Lecture
Erica Moiah James, Assistant Professor, Department of Art and Art History, University of Miami
“Undress to Redress: African Diasporic Art History and Archives of Black Representational Bodies”

Keynote Lecture
Freida High W. Tesfagiorgis, Evjue-Bascom Emerita Professor of African and African American Art History & Visual Culture, Departments of Afro-American Studies and Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
            “Reflections on My Personal/ Professional Journey That Continues Amid Crises”

James A. Porter Distinguished Lecture
Kobena Mercer, Professor, History of Art and African American Studies, Department of the History of Art, Yale University
“Flowback—How Africa is Redefining Today’s Diaspora”

Floyd Coleman Distinguished Lecture
Renée Stout, artist
           “Thank You for Talking to Me Africa: Trusting the Voice Within”

Artist Conversations (Available on Howard University Gallery of Art Porter Colloquium Website after 4/16; no registration necessary)

Willis “Bing” Davis in conversation with Akili Tomassino (Associate Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Aïda Muluneh and Larry Cook (Assistant Professor of Photography, Department of Art, Howard University) in conversation with Natalie Hopkinson (Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Culture and Media Studies, Howard University)

Please register and join us on April 15th and April 16th, 2021.

Part-time Fellowship (1-year) at Frick Art Reference Library (application due Apr. 30, 2021)

Part-time Fellowship

One-year part-time fellowship. The term of the award will begin in September 2021 and conclude in May 2022.

Summary

The Frick Collection and Frick Art Reference Library is pleased to announce the availability of a one-year part-time fellowship for an outstanding graduate student in art history, the digital humanities, computer science and/or information science. The successful candidate will complete a digital project (preferably Open Access) of their own design that utilizes the rich digital resources of the Library, especially The Frick Digital Collections, the institution’s online archive, and its Art History Research Databases. Ideally, this project would support research for the fellow’s master’s thesis or dissertation; however, projects for course credit and independent initiatives will also be considered. During the tenure of the fellowship, which will be held remotely, the fellow will also be closely involved in all activities and public programming sponsored by the institution’s Digital Art History Lab. At the conclusion of the fellowship, the Fellow will be required to present their project in an online public event scheduled for May 2022.

Qualifications and Application Process

Applicants must be enrolled in an accredited graduate program in the United States or Canada. The Fellow will receive a one-time stipend of $15,000. The Fellow will be considered a part-time employee for the duration of their fellowship. The term of the award will begin in September 2021 and conclude in May 2022.

Applications must include the following materials:

·         A cover letter explaining the applicant’s interest in the fellowship and the Frick Art Reference Library’s digital resources more broadly. The letter must include a home address, phone number, and email address

·         An abstract, not to exceed three typed pages double-spaced, describing the applicant’s proposed project

·         A complete curriculum vitae of education, employment, honors, awards, and publications

·         Two letters of recommendation (academic and professional)

Please submit application materials to dahlprograms@frick.org. Letters of recommendation should be sent to this email address directly from recommenders; PDFs of signed letters on university or business stationary are preferred.

The application deadline for the fellowship is April 30, 2021.

Finalists will be interviewed via video conferencing. The Library plans to make the appointment by May 31, 2021.

Benefits of a Fellowship with The Frick Collection

The Frick Collection offers excellent opportunities to appreciate some of the world’s finest works of art. All fellows of The Frick Collection may access free or discounted admission to most of New York’s museums. The Frick also provides employees, trainees, interns, fellows, and volunteers with a discount on Museum Shop purchases.

Equal Employment Opportunity has been, and will continue to be, a fundamental principle at The Collection, where employment is based upon personal capabilities and qualifications without discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, alienage or citizenship status, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, military status, creed, genetic predisposition or carrier status or any other protected characteristic as established by law. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

This description shall not be construed as a contract of any sort for a specific period of employment.

Museum Specialist—National Museum of African-American History and Culture (Smithsonian Institution) — application deadline Mar. 16, 2021

Americanists and/or contemporary specialists with interest in art made by US artists of African descent are encouraged to apply. Info here:

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/593868500

CFP: Landscapes of Slavery, Landscapes of Freedom: The African diaspora and the American built environment

Harvard Graduate School of Design

November 5-7, 2021

Histories of the Atlantic world have focused both on the adaptation of ideas from the Old Continent to the new and on the material and cultural exchanges occurring throughout the centuries. To complement this scholarship, studies have been conducted on the slave trade between West Africa, mainland North America and the Caribbean, which formed the base of plantation economy and helped build the fortunes of many landowners in the colonial and antebellum period of the republic. Recent scholarship has acknowledged the violence of the archive of white records of slavery that have silenced the voices of the enslaved, and this work has sought to recover the experiences and vantage points of slavery’s victims.

This forum will address a more specific set of questions that have to do not only with the unique contribution the forced labor of the African diaspora and Afro-descendants brought to the plantation economy, but also with the potential exchange of knowledge about gardening and cultivation practices across the Atlantic, both from West Africa and between the Caribbean and mainland North America. On occasion the cultivation of specific staple crops such as rice depended upon the expertise of the enslaved. More generally, many of those forced to labor on their masters’ plantations simultaneously worked on small plots of land within their quarters, enabling them to exercise limited agency with regard to the extent and type of crop cultivation for their own use and consumption. When slavery legally ended, the exploitation of black labor continued, although over time black land-ownership increased and perhaps involved different approaches to land use than was common among white small-holders. Reconstructing these histories and those of the environments Africans built and cultivated for others and for themselves is challenging, as there is only a limited archival record that contains few enslaved voices.

This conference seeks to engage with the work of archaeologists, ethnobotanists, cultural geographers, anthropologists, and of experts in African American Studies and oral history in order to form a more complete picture of the African contribution to the shaping of the North American landscape.

Proposals for unpublished papers are welcome from scholars in any field. Topics might include (but are not limited to) such subjects as:

• the relationship between place-making and slave labor in North America and its cultural, social and economic underpinnings.

• the adaptation of imported African horticultural and agricultural knowledge in the Caribbean and North America.

• the exchange of knowledge related to agricultural and gardening practices between the Caribbean and the North American mainland.

• Atlantic World foodways.

• crop cultivation and food growing practices on plantation sites indebted to forced labor.

• the ways in which slavery and forced labor made intensive cultivation and production possible.

• the place-making of former slaves in both rural and urban environments.

Abstracts of no more than 500 words are to be headed with the applicant’s name, title of the paper, professional affiliation, and contact information. A two-page CV should also be included in the submission. Please send proposals by March 15, 2021 to: Raffaella Fabiani Giannetto, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University. Email: rfabiani@gsd.harvard.edu

Authors of accepted proposals will be required to submit the complete text of their papers by June 15, and carry out potential revisions by August 30, 2021, after which the symposium chair will circulate them among the speakers. Publication of the essays presented at the conference is anticipated.

Hot Metal Bridge Post-Baccalaureate Fellowship Program at University of Pittsburgh (applications due Apr. 2, 2021)

Barbara McCloskey at the University of Pittsburgh writes:

Dear Colleagues,

I’m writing to spread the word about the Hot Metal Bridge Post-Bac Program (HMB) at the University of Pittsburgh. This 1-year, fully funded post-baccalaureate fellowship program is designed to help talented students from groups traditionally underrepresented in art history and other selected disciplines in the natural and social sciences, including first-generation graduate students and those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.  HMB helps to bridge the gap between an undergraduate degree and a graduate training program. Program eligibility is limited to US citizens or permanent residents. Fellows enjoy financial support (including tuition and stipend) and mentoring by both faculty and graduate students as they prepare themselves for a successful program of doctoral studies. This is a great opportunity for recent college graduates, those who seek to change careers, and other applicants who have completed an undergraduate degree, are highly motivated and show strong academic promise, but are not quite ready to apply to a doctoral program in their field of interest. Of those who have completed the program since 2011, 80% have gone on to graduate studies at Pitt and elsewhere. 

Full details, answers to frequently asked questions, and application instructions are available here: https://www.asgraduate.pitt.edu/hot-metal-bridge-post-bac-program

In the History of Art and Architecture (HAA) Department, Hot Metal Bridge Fellows enroll in graduate seminars, take part in our research constellations, and are integrated into other aspects of university life along with the first-year graduate cohort.  They also receive personalized mentoring on their applications to PhD programs. 

Information on the Graduate Program in History of Art and Architecture is available here: https://www.haa.pitt.edu/graduate

My colleagues and I in HAA and other participating departments at Pitt would be very grateful if you would help us spread the word about this program among your students, colleagues, and broader networks. While the deadline for Fall 2021–Friday, April 2, 2021–is rapidly approaching, we hope you will also keep this program in mind for students who could be ready to apply next year, if not this year. 

Thank you in advance for your help in disseminating this opportunity, and please encourage potential applicants and/or their mentors to get in touch with our Interim Chair, Jennifer Josten (jej40@pitt.edu), or Director of Graduate Studies, Barbara McCloskey (bmcc@pitt.edu), with any questions they may have.


Best wishes,

Barbara McCloskey

Professor and Director of Graduate Studies

Department of History of Art and Architecture

University of Pittsburgh

Call for Proposals: “24 Views” Submit by Mar. 31, 2021

Tiffany Lin writes:

“24 VIEWS is a longitudinal project that investigates the history of racial classification through US Census data.

Prior to COVID-19 related disruptions, 24 VIEWS was envisioned as an exhibition with public facing activations, I have pivoted away from in-person programming and am now pursuing an expansive curatorial project.
I now invite writers, artists, or anyone so inclined to submit proposals or existing work on past, current, or future implications of racial classification in the United States. I welcome critical essays, manifestos, treatises, poetry, prose, speculative fiction, and visual works of all media. 
I have modest stipends available for 24 works. For now, the project will be web-based but I’m working on the possibility of a print version pending the outcome of other funding opportunities. Details available at 24views.org. Please share far and wide – send me your best!” 

CAA2021 | 20 Years of Critical Race Art History

ACRAH will be at CAA2021. Even though CAA will be virtual, we are participating. To find out about the conference and the virtual format, visit the CAA conference portal:
https://caa.confex.com/caa/2021/meetingapp.cgi/Home/0

We are celebrating our 20th anniversary with an interview between ourselves, your founding co-directors, and two emerging scholars Melanee Harvey, Howard University, and julia neal, UTexas-Austin. Plus we have some reflections from a range of scholars on how critical race art history informs their work. Our session information is on the following page of the CAA Conference portal:
https://caa.confex.com/caa/2021/meetingapp.cgi/Session/8073

The interview and presentations will be available on the CAA website for advanced viewing on February 5th, 2021. The live q&a for the session is on Friday, February 12, 2021 at 6pm.

LEC: “An Immigrant’s View: Ben Shahn Paints America”

“An Immigrant’s View: Ben Shahn Paints America” with Diana Linden, Ph.D.

Wednesday, February 10 at 6 pm EST

Free; Registration required


Join us virtually for a discussion with Diana Linden, Ph.D. as she explores the life and art of Ben Shahn (1898-1969). Born in Lithuania, Shahn immigrated to New York with his family at six years old. He apprenticed with a lithographer at a young age and studied for a short time at the National Academy of Design as well as the Art Students League. Shahn’s career took off beginning in the 1930s, which is the decade Linden’s conversation centers on. The event is free, but donations are greatly appreciated. Registration is required.

Register on Eventbrite

Dr. Diana L. Linden is the author of Ben Shahn’s New Deal Murals: Jewish Identity in the American Scene (2015) along with many other works on Shahn, New York City Jewish artists, and New Deal Art. In 2019, she won the Frost Essay Award for best article in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s journalAmerican Art. She has also previously written on the Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation for The Magazine Antiques. 

In celebration of the centennial of Chaim Gross’s immigration to the United States, the Foundation is focusing our 2021 programming on illuminating the stories of artists and immigrants in the collection. Our winter and spring programming is centered around Eastern European emigrants.

POSITION: Associate Professor or Professor, Modern and/or Contemporary Art History, Tyler School of Art–Applications due Jan. 30, 2021

The Department of Art History of Tyler School of Art and Architecture invites applications for a full-time tenure-track faculty position at the rank of Associate Professor or Professor in the specialization of the arts and visual culture of the Modern and/or Contemporary period. While expertise in modern and/or contemporary art is essential, the committee welcomes applicants from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and encourages research areas centered in geographies beyond Europe and the Americas. Preferred applicants will also demonstrate strengths in one or more of the following fields: critical race theory, settler colonial/postcolonial/decolonial studies, gender and queer theory, and visual/material culture theory. Successful candidates will be expected to have and maintain a strong research agenda and demonstrate a commitment to undergraduate and graduate teaching and mentoring, while contributing to the growth of Tyler’s Art History and Visual Studies programs. They should also be comfortable contributing to and mentoring a culture of diversity in the department and school and working with studio artists at the undergraduate and graduate level. 

The successful candidate will hold a PhD and have a record of research commensurate with rank on application, and demonstrate an appropriate level of teaching experience and service. Candidates should demonstrate familiarity with best teaching practices and with innovative instructional design and technologies. Candidates should also have experience with department and college-wide service and demonstrate professional accomplishments in the discipline. The position involves teaching at the undergraduate level (including Art History majors, Visual Studies majors, studio majors, and non-majors), and teaching and advising at the M.A. and Ph.D. levels (including MFAs, Masters of Arts Management, Masters of Art Education). Tyler’s Department of Art History has a faculty of 13 full-time members who specialize in areas ranging from the ancient world to the present. Art History at Temple is part of the highly-ranked Tyler School of Art and Architecture and there is dynamic synergy among the programs in the school. The department is located on Temple University’s main Philadelphia campus and is housed in a state-of-the-art facility. Temple offers the resources of a major university in a culturally rich city and region.

The letter of application should include a statement describing research and teaching interests and past accomplishments in fostering a culture of diversity in their field and in the classroom. Candidates are encouraged to address the ways in which they could contribute to Temple’s institutional mission and commitment to excellence and diversity and to Tyler’s engagement in interdisciplinarity. In addition, the application should include a CV, name and contact information for three references, two sample syllabi for courses, and a writing sample. Finalists will be expected to supply official degree transcripts, letters of reference, and evaluations for courses taught. 

The successful applicant will begin teaching classes in the fall of 2021; the course load is 2-2. The successful applicant will teach a critical theory class for MFA students, upper-level undergraduate classes which include Art History majors, studio majors, and non-majors, and a graduate seminar; they will also teach and advise MA, MFA, Med, and PhD students.

Please send all materials electronically by January 30, 2021. To apply, please visit temple.slideroom.com to set up an account and upload your application materials. If you need assistance during the upload, email support@slideroom.com.

Temple University is an equal opportunity, equal access, affirmative action employer committed to increasing diversity and inclusivity in both its community and its curricula. Women, people of color, and other candidates who can contribute to this goal are strongly encouraged to apply.

Address further inquiries to Dr. Leah Modigliani, search committee chair, at AHjob17@temple.edu

LEC: Race, Gender and Intermedia Art Practice in Transnational Paris, c. 1900

Race, Gender and Intermedia Art Practice in Transnational Paris, c. 1900
Zoom Roundtables, Friday February 26 and March 5, 2021 from 5-7 PM UK time.
Organized by the Birkbeck Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies and the Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies at Durham University

What were the opportunities and limitations in late nineteenth-century Paris for artists (broadly defined) who were not white and male?

This pair of events brings together research presentations and roundtable discussion in response to passages from art historian Emily C. Burns’s book-in-progress, Performing Innocence: Cultural Belatedness and U.S. Art in Fin-de-Siècle Paris. Burns analyzes how the encounters in the French capital reshaped American culture, fueled by the idea that the US had no culture, no history, and no tradition. The sections were pre-circulated to participants and will be briefly summarized at the start of the Feb 26 event.

Friday, Feb 26

Emily C. Burns, Associate Professor of Art History, Auburn University / Terra Foundation Visiting Professor, University of Oxford
“Introduction: Race, Gender and Intermedia Art Practice in Transnational Paris, c. 1900”

Adrienne L. Childs, Associate, The Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Harvard University
“Cordier’s Caryatids: Laboring Black Bodies and the Sumptuous Second Empire Interior”

Susan Waller, Professor Emerita, Department of Art & Design, University of Missouri, St. Louis / Adjunct Professor of Art History, Maine College of Art
“Muslim Models in Nineteenth-century Paris”

Kirsten Pai Buick, Professor of Art History, University of New Mexico
“Don’t Look Back: African and African Diasporic Entanglements with France”

Register on Eventbrite

Friday, Mar 5

Peter Gibian, Associate Professor of English, McGill University
“Elle s’affiche”: Women Performers Pushing the Limits—Daisy Miller, Virginie Gautreau [Mme. X], Isadora Duncan”

Juliet Bellow, Associate Professor of Art History, American University
“Rodin and Hanako: Behind the Mask”

Renée Ater, Provost Visiting Professor, Africana Studies, Brown University
“Meta Vaux Warrick in Paris, 1899-1902”

Register on Eventbrite