The Grapevine
20th-Century British Artists of Color: A New History Project
This is a new initiative, led by contemporary artist Sonia Boyce, will document the careers of British modernists and post-modernists who are/were black. (“Black” here is in the political category that was vital in the 1970s and 1980s, meaning British ethno-racial minorities of African, Asian, and Caribbean heritages.)
Boyce puts the paradox up front. The project’s categorization draws boundaries around the artists as black people, a designation which some of them believe will limit or subtend assessment of their practices. However, without naming these important artists as black people, the pathways of modernism and its narratives, will appear to be entirely and homogeneously white. These accounts are simply incomplete. What’s worse they fail to tell on themselves. That is, they don’t draw attention to their own exclusionarism and elitism.
For more on the British project, see:
CFP: Zones of Representation
Call for Papers:
“Zones of Representation: Photographing Contested Landscapes, Contemporary West Coast Perspectives on Photography and Photograph-Based Media,” a symposium organized by Makeda Best (California College of the Arts), Bridget Gilman (Santa Clara University), and Kathy Zarur (California College of the Arts), at SF Camerawork, San Francisco, CA, April 23, 2016
Contemporary global events and phenomena continue to shape visual interpretations of economic, social, environmental, and political geographies, and to disrupt conceptions of region, nation, citizenship, and community.
“Zones of Representation” will consider how photographers and time-based media artists have responded to transformations in the global landscape through new ideas about the function of photographic media, and the shifting roles of makers and audiences. We want to know: how can novel visual practices disrupt traditional narratives of spatial representation? In what unique ways do artists in time-based media acknowledge and respond to the historical contribution of their medium in defining, producing, and perpetuating these same narratives? What new connections do these practices demonstrate and reveal? And, in what ways do contemporary technologies, modes of distribution, and access impact interactions with the land?
We invite papers that address the expanded role of photography and time-based media in global landscape discourses and social fabrics.
Proposals on contemporary topics or new perspectives on historic materials are encouraged. Proposals from image makers are also welcome.
Please send a 300-word proposal, a one-paragraph biographical statement, and full contact information tozonesofrepresentation@gmail.com by January 8, 2016.
“Zones of Representation” aims to connect artists, historians, curators and arts professionals, and students in Northern California, facilitating a regional network for the latest art historical scholarship. The symposium is presented in collaboration with SF Camerawork and is co-sponsored by the Northern California Art Historians (NCAH), a College Art Association affiliated society.
Live: Conversations about Race at Stanford
Tomorrow (Nov. 19, 2015) starts at 12:30 PM Pacific
The first half of the symposium will feature a conversation from 12:30 to 2 pm PST about Policing, Mass Incarceration & Racial Justice with Mychal Denzel Smith (The Nation), Rinku Sen (Colorlines), Isabel Garcia (Derechos Humanos) and Reverend Osagyefo Sekou (Fellowship of Reconciliation & King Research and Education Institute). Moderated by H. Samy Alim.
The second half of the symposium will feature a conversation from 2:30 to 4 pm PST about The Arts, Racial Justice & Cultural Equity with Favianna Rodriguez (CultureStr/ke), Jasiri X (1Hood), Jonathan Calm (Stanford Department of Art & Art History), Deborah Cullinan (Yerba Buena Center for The Arts), and Rita Gonzalez (Los Angeles County Museum of Art). Moderated by Jeff Chang.
Here’s the URL again:
Lowe Curatorial Fellowship for Diversity in the Fine Arts @ PAFA
The Winston & Carolyn Lowe Curatorial Fellowship for Diversity in the Fine Arts (Lowe Curatorial Fellowship) at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) in Philadelphia, PA offers the opportunity for a highly qualified candidate with outstanding credentials to gain professional curatorial experience at a nationally renowned museum of American Art affiliated with a degree-granting fine arts art school. One of the main goals of the Fellowship is to enhance diversity by focusing recruitment efforts on under-represented groups in America in the curatorial profession.
The Lowe Curatorial Fellowship will be a full-time, two-year term position offering a highly mentored and structured curatorial experience at PAFA. The Lowe Curatorial Fellowship will be designed to provide a professional bridge to a major institutional museum career and encourage diversity within the museum field. The Fellowship provides growth and development for outstanding candidates, particularly those from underrepresented groups, and provides a professional bridge to museum careers, encouraging diversity within the museum field. The start date will be determined based on the successful applicant’s schedule.
Applications will be accepted immediately and will be reviewed until an appropriate candidate is identified.
Tenure Track Assistant Professor Position (20th-21st Century Literature) Macalester College/English Dept. – Deadline Nov. 1, 2015
Tenure Track Assistant Professor Position @UConn: Black Atlantic Studies (listed through Dec. 31, 2015)
Hawai`i and Pacific American Studies Curator Position/SAAM – Application Deadline Oct. 30, 2015
EXCITING EDMONIA LEWIS DISCOVERY
An important discovery has been made of a Bust of Christ by the Afro-Indian sculptor Edmonia Lewis (1842-1907). It is in a collection in Scotland for which she also created a Madonna and Child With Angels.
A work by her of this name was auctioned in London in the latter part of the 19th-century, but with no illustration and little other information.
For a quick intro to Lewis, her life and career, Google “Marilyn Richardson” “Edmonia Lewis” both in quotes.
ACRAH 