The Grapevine

ACRAH will be at CAA2025!

The ACRAH/CAA2025 panel will be Critical Race Art History Roundtable: Doing the Work

The session will be in-person at the New York Hilton Midtown – 2nd Floor – Nassau West on February 14, 2025 at 2:30pm EST.

The ACRAH Business Meeting will also be held in the same room February 14, 2025 at 1:00pm EST.

Session Abstract:

What does it mean to do critical race art history? This session brings together scholars in a conversation about how a critical race art history approach can manifest in our work. Having proposed this line of inquiry twenty-five years ago, we want to reflect on the nature of the concept and how the field has evolved. What are the goals of critical race art history, and what are its methodologies and theoretical grounds? What are the conceptual parameters of this lens on art history–what does it mean to center an understanding that race structures how we see and shapes our reception of art? What tools and methods do we employ to make the operations of race visible? How do we move from American identity politics –that emphasizes a white/non-white binary and focuses on the identification of negative racial tropes and artistic rebuttals to the harm of such imagery–to a comprehensive unpacking of the systemic racialization in art? What do we gain when we foreground how race informs the construction of the visual cultures that we inhabit? How do the insights of critical race art history become integrated into art history at large?

Participants:

Kymberly Pinder, Yale University

Pinder is Professor of Art and History of Art and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Dean of the Yale School of Art. She is the editor of Race-ing Art History: Critical Reading in Race and Art History (Routledge, 2002).

Tatiana Flores, University of Virginia

Flores is the Edgar Shannon Jefferson Scholars Foundation Distinguished Professor in Art History at the University of Virginia. She is an editor of The Routledge Companion to Decolonizing Art History (2023).

Elizabeth Hutchinson, Barnard University

Hutchison is the Tow Associate Professor of Art History at Barnard College. She is the author of The Indian Craze: Primitivism, Modernism, and Transculturation in American Art, 1890-1915 (Duke University Press, 2009).

Lily Cho, York University

Cho is Associate Professor of English at York University. She is the author of Mass Capture: Chinese Head Tax and the Making of Non-Citizens (McGill-Queens University Press, 2021).

Webinar: “Hidden Histories: Rediscovering the Federal Art Project at the Saint Louis Art Museum”

Greetings,  

I’m writing to announce the free Living New Deal webinar “Hidden Histories: Rediscovering the Federal Art Project at the Saint Louis Art Museum” at 5 PM Pacific Standard Time on Tuesday, February 4, 2025.

To register, click on the link below

Register on Eventbrite

We invite you to join us for a webinar with John Ott, Professor of Art History at James Madison University, and Amy Torbert, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Associate Curator of American Art at the Saint Louis Art Museum and co-curator of the current exhibition The Work of Art: The Federal Art Project, 1935–1943. Their conversation will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the planning process for this show, relate forgotten and untold stories from our nation’s artistic past, and illuminate neglected contributions from women, immigrant, and minority artists.

Co-curated with Clare Kobasa, SLAM’s associate curator of prints, drawings, and photographs, The Work of Art presents a remarkable collection of artworks created amidst the hardship of the Great Depression. In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched a series of national initiatives for the visual arts as part of the New Deal. The largest and most ambitious program, the Federal Art Project (FAP) (1935–43), put more than 10,000 artists on the federal rolls. The resulting artworks decorated municipal spaces, toured the nation in travelling shows, and eventually found homes in institutions across the country.

When the FAP ended in 1943, the Saint Louis Art Museum received a trove of 256 prints, drawings, watercolors, and paintings. This exhibition draws from this rich collection to explore how this federal program expanded opportunities to create and encounter art in many different communities, some of which had historically lacked the necessary infrastructure and support for the arts. By displaying work made by African American, Asian American, female-identifying, and immigrant artists, The Work of Art testifies to and keeps alive the New Deal’s ambition to nourish individuals and communities of every kind through the arts. Organized by geography, this showcase also reveals the complexities of the nation’s creative landscapes and art’s capacity to bridge communities near and far.

Clark Art Institute (Williamstown, MA) – Early-Career Research and Program Assistant

Please see the below links for an opportunity to work at the Clark (where there are several opportunities). 

The Early Career Research and Program Assistant position is designed for someone who has recently completed a Master’s degree and wants to step into a meaningful professional setting for a couple years before moving on to doctoral study.

https://theapplicantmanager.com/jobs?pos=L7290https://theapplicantmanager.com/jobs?pos=L7290

JOB: PostDoc, Reparative Art Histories @ University of Pittsburgh

The Department of the History of Art & Architecture (HAA) in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh is seeking applications for a Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Associate position on “Reparative Art Histories.” We invite candidates who have completed or will complete a Ph.D. in the history of art, architecture, or visual culture to apply for this two-year appointment, running August 1, 2025, through July 30, 2027, that is funded by a grant from the Mellon Foundation on the theme of social justice and disciplinary knowledge. 

Review of applications begins March 1, 2025. More details about the position and the link to apply can be found here: https://cfopitt.taleo.net/careersection/pitt_faculty_external_pd/jobdetail.ftl?job=24009218

JOB: Prof., Architectural Design/Theory @ University of Chicago

Professor of Practice in the Arts (Associate or Full) – Architectural Design/Theory

Description
The Department of Art History at the University of Chicago invites applications for a position as Professor of Practice in the Arts (Associate or Full) in Architectural Design/Theory and related areas. The expected start date of the position is July 1, 2026, or as soon as possible thereafter. The selected candidate will teach four courses per year on the quarter system in areas related to their expertise, and they will pursue their own creative and scholarly agenda. The initial appointment is for five years, which is renewable upon successful review.
We seek to fill our PPA opening with a practicing architect who is committed to undergraduate education and can discuss the role of the built environment in society with colleagues across the university, particularly those involved with the Committee on Environment, Geography and Urbanization, Chicago Studies, and the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation.
This search is part of an initiative to continue to build the Department of Art History’s Architectural Studies program, which offers both scholarly and studio-style courses to undergraduates. The PPA will serve as the Architectural Studies Advisor, collaborating with the Coordinator of the Architectural Studies Program and other faculty and lecturers who specialize in architectural design, practice, and theory. Together, they will identify and implement best practices related to teaching and advising to shape the present and future of the program. The selected candidate is expected to maintain profiles both in university instruction and in architecture design and practice.

Qualifications
The successful candidate will be actively involved in architectural debates, practice, and theory; possess experience teaching at the university level; and the ability or potential to be an excellent teacher and mentor to undergraduate students. We especially seek candidates who are well positioned to shape the future of architectural studies within the greater context of the arts and humanities.
All requirements for receipt of an M.Arch or Ph.D. in architecture or a related field must be completed prior to the start of the appointment.

Application Instructions
Applicants must upload the following materials to the University of Chicago’s recruitment website at https://apply.interfolio.com/160767 by 10:59pm Central Time/11:59pm Eastern Time on January 26, 2025:

  • CV
  • Cover Letter
  • Research and Creative Statement
  • A sample portfolio (texts and/or images)
  • Contact information for three references who may be asked to write letters of recommendation

Candidates who advance will be asked to provide a teaching statement and other additional materials following the initial review of applications. Questions may be directed to arthistory@uchicago.edu.
The terms and conditions of employment for this position are covered by a collective bargaining agreement between the University of Chicago and the Service Employees International Union. This position is contingent upon budgetary approval.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
All University departments and institutes are charged with building a faculty from a diversity of backgrounds and with diverse viewpoints; with cultivating an inclusive community that values freedom of expression; and with welcoming and supporting all their members.
We seek a diverse pool of applicants who wish to join an academic community that places the highest value on rigorous inquiry and encourages diverse perspectives, experiences, groups of individuals, and ideas to inform and stimulate intellectual challenge, engagement, and exchange. The University’s Statements on Diversity are at https://provost.uchicago.edu/statements-diversity.
The University of Chicago is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity/Disabled/Veterans Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, age, status as an individual with a disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, or other protected classes under the law. For additional information please see the University’s Notice of Nondiscrimination.
Job seekers in need of a reasonable accommodation to complete the application process should call 773-834-3988 or email equalopportunity@uchicago.edu with their request.

CFP: Disabilities and American Art Histories, American Art

Call for Papers:American ArtCommentaries
Disabilities and American Art Histories
Deadline: April 1, 2025
Co-organizers Laurel Daen and Jennifer Van Horn invite short essays that explore the intersections of disability studies and the histories of American art, architecture, and design; center disability in compelling and innovative ways; foreground critical disability studies methodologies; and conceptualize disability broadly. For details, visitjournals.uchicago.edu/journals/amart/cfp-disabilities-and-american-art-histories. The articles will be published in American Art, the peer-reviewed journal co-published by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the University of Chicago Press, in 2026.

CFP: Thinking Art History and Black Studies Together, American Art Journal

Call for Papers:Thinking Art History and Black Studies Together
SAAM American Art Journal
Deadline: March 1, 2025
Co-organizers Tiffany Barber, Ariel Evans, and Cherise Smith invite short essays that investigate the methodological intersections between art history and Black studies, understood as both theory and practice; document the institutions and individuals who have championed them; and exemplify how thinking art history and Black studies together expands the roots and aims of both disciplines. For details, visit journals.uchicago.edu/journals/amart/cfp-thinking-art-history-and-black-studies-together. The articles will be published in American Art, the peer-reviewed journal co-published by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the University of Chicago Press, in 2026.

Call for Nominations: 2025 Charles C. Eldredge Prize

Call for Nominations: 2025 Charles C. Eldredge Prize
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is now accepting nominations for the 2025 Charles C. Eldredge Prize. The prize is awarded annually by the museum for outstanding scholarship in the field of American art. A cash award of $3,000 is made to the author of a recent book-length publication that provides new insight into works of art, the artists who made them, or aspects of history and theory that enrich our understanding of America’s artistic heritage. The Eldredge Prize seeks to recognize originality and thoroughness of research, excellence of writing, clarity of method, and significance for professional or public audiences. It is especially meant to honor those authors who deepen or focus debates in the field, or who broaden the discipline by reaching beyond traditional boundaries.
Single-author books devoted to any aspect of the visual arts of the United States and published in the three previous calendar years (2022, 2023, 2024) are eligible. To nominate a book, send a one-page letter explaining the work’s significance to the field of American art history and discussing the quality of the author’s scholarship and methodology. Nominations by authors or publishers for their own books will not be considered. The deadline for nominations is January 15, 2025. Please send to: Eldredge@si.edu. Further information about the prize may be found at americanart.si.edu/research/awards/eldredge.

JOB: Asst Prof, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)

The UMBC Visual Arts Department seeks to recruit a tenure-track Assistant Professor with a specialty in art history and/or visual culture whose research and teaching interests encompass the modern and contemporary visual arts (20th and 21st centuries) of one or more of the following geographical areas: Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, or another academic field of artistic and cultural focus, historically marginalized by Eurocentric canons of art history. This position requires demonstration of a deep interest in and commitment to addressing diverse political, historical, social, and cultural perspectives on a global scale within the disciplines of art history and visual culture. Also of interest are applicants who demonstrate new and culturally diverse experimental methodological approaches and/or hold a specific interest in museum/curatorial studies as these relate to art structures and practices in a global modern and contemporary context.

Apply via Interfolio at:   https://apply.interfolio.com/158714

DAHS Job: Assistant Editor, Brown University Digital Publications

Brown University Library seeks to hire a creative, highly organized, and enthusiastic individual for the position of Assistant Editor, Brown University Digital Publications. Widely recognized as accessible, intentional, and inclusive, Brown University Digital Publications is helping to set the standards for the future of scholarship in the digital age. This is an exciting opportunity to join an innovative, expanding program committed to integrating diversity, equity, and social justice into the practice and production of digital publications for both scholarly audiences and the wider public.

For full description and to apply:

https://brown.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/staff-careers-brown/details/Assistant-Editor_REQ198485-1