The Grapevine

JOB: Curator of African-American Art @ Georgia Museum of Art

THE THOMPSON CURATOR OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN ART

The Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator [the “Thompson Curator”] at the Georgia Museum of Art on the campus of the University of Georgia will oversee a growing collection of objects and archives by artists of the African diaspora, with an emphasis on art by African Americans, as well as managing a smaller collection of African objects. The Thompson Curator will report to the director of the museum. He or she will work collaboratively with other curators where areas of interest overlap, particularly with the curators of American art and decorative arts, as well as with the Pierre Daura Curator of European Art, the curator of education, the director of communications, registrars, preparators and with outside curators and other scholars, to further the study, care, interpretation, presentation and publication of objects in the collection.

Qualifications: The position requires substantial, proven knowledge of art by African Americans, art of the larger African diaspora and African art and material culture, in addition to curatorial experience (preferably three to five years in a museum setting), connoisseurship and knowledge of issues regarding conservation. A doctorate in the history of art, African studies, African-American studies, or a closely related field is required; publications and a demonstrated interest in academics are expected.

Primary duties: The Thompson Curator will have day-to-day and long-term responsibilities regarding organizing exhibitions, conducting research, budgeting, writing for publications, recommending and soliciting acquisitions and identifying and performing as in-house curator for exhibitions on loan from other institutions. The Thompson Curator will work with the curator of education to make exhibitions more accessible to the general public, with docents in training for tours and with the faculty, staff and students of the university.

Donor relations will be an important aspect of the curator’s job, and she or he will be expected to assist the director in identifying and cultivating prospects for future gifts of works of art to the museum’s permanent collection, as well as working with the museum’s Board of Advisors. A wide range of professional activities is expected, including lecturing, teaching, participation in scholarly symposia, contributing to scholarly publications, serving on museum committees and actively participating in professional organizations and committees.

The museum: The Georgia Museum of Art shares the mission of the University of Georgia to support and promote teaching, research and service. Specifically, the museum exists to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret significant works of art. Opened in 1948, the Georgia Museum of Art is accredited by AAM and is a member of AAMD. It is both a university museum and the official state museum of art. The museum offers programming for patrons of all ages, from children to senior citizens, as well as free admission to the public for all exhibitions. It carries out an ambitious exhibition and acquisition program, organizing its own exhibitions in-house, creating traveling exhibitions for other museums and galleries and playing host to traveling exhibitions from around the country and the world. The museum hosts approximately 80,000 visitors a year. Visit http://www.georgiamuseum.org for more details.

The university: The museum is located on the campus of the University of Georgia, a land- and sea-grant state university with a total enrollment of around 35,000 students and a workforce of nearly 10,000 employees. Eighteen different schools and colleges are within the university, and its libraries are ranked among the nation’s best in research. U.S. News & World Report’s 2013 “Best Colleges” edition has UGA ranked 21 among public universities. Its NCAA Division I sports teams have won 38 national championships, including 26 since 1999.

The town: Athens, Georgia, is located 70 miles northeast of Atlanta, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, approximately 300 miles from the coast. With a population of more than 100,000, Athens serves the region as an educational, medical, business, industrial and retail center. The city benefits from strong historic preservationist activity and nurtures artists, writers, musicians and poets. Cultural, sporting and outdoor opportunities abound, for both adults and children. The public school system is recognized statewide for excellence, and there are several outstanding independent and parochial schools in the area. Both the city and the university have a public transit system. Urban, suburban and rural housing is available either for purchase or rent. For more information about Athens, please visit the Athens Convention & Visitors Bureau website at http://www.visitathensga.com.

Applications will be reviewed until the position is filled. Please send a letter of application, a curriculum vitae and a sample of scholarly writing to:

Lisa Conley, Business Manager

Georgia Museum of Art

90 Carlton Street

Athens, Georgia 30602-6719

Materials may be sent via email to laconley@uga.edu. No faxes accepted. Preliminary interviews will take place during the College Art Association annual conference in New York, February 11-14, 2015. Anticipated start date is July 1, 2015 or as negotiated.

The University of Georgia is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.

How Africa Means in Visual Culture

Prince Harry and the herdsman: can we really fall for this imperial hokum?

http://gu.com/p/44bfh

SO! Amplifies: Mendi+Keith Obadike and Sounding Race in America

guestlistener's avatarSounding Out!

Document3SO! Amplifies. . .a highly-curated, rolling mini-post series by which we editors hip you to cultural makers and organizations doing work we really really dig.  You’re welcome!

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Several years ago—after working on media art, myths, songs about invisible networks and imaginary places—we started a series of sound art projects about America. In making these public sound artworks about our country we ask ourselves questions about funk, austerity, debt and responsibility, aesthetics, and inheritance. We also attempt to reckon with data, that which orders so much of our lives with its presence or absence.

We are interested in how data might be understood differently once sonified or made musical. We want to explore what kinds of codes are embedded in the architecture of American culture.

Big House/Disclosure

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The first sound art project in this vein that we completed in 2007 was entitled Big House / Disclosure. Northwestern University commissioned

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American Material Culture: Nineteenth-Century New York | NEH Summer Institute @ Bard Graduate Center

American Material Culture: Nineteenth-Century New York
NEH Summer Institute for College and University Teachers
At the Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture, New York City, July 6-31, 2015.

Objects matter. Material culture scholars use artifactual evidence such as consumer goods, architecture, clothing, landscape, decorative arts, and many other types of material.

The Bard Graduate Center will host a four-week NEH Summer Institute on American Material Culture. The institute will focus on the material culture of the nineteenth century and use New York as its case study because of its role as a national center for fashioning cultural commodities and promoting consumer tastes. We will study significant texts in the scholarship of material culture together as well as in tandem with visiting some of the wonderful collections in and around New York City for our hands-on work with artifacts. The city will be our laboratory to explore some of the important issues of broad impact that go well beyond New York.

We welcome applications from college teachers and other scholars with some experience doing object-based work, as well as those who have never taught or studied material culture. Application materials and other information about content, qualifications, stipends, housing, etc. is available at http://www.bgc.bard.edu/neh-institute.

The application deadline is March 2, 2015.

David Jaffee, Project Director
Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture

For more information, please contact:
Zahava Friedman-Stadler
Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture
38 West 86th Street
New York, NY 10024
212.501.3026 / nehinstitute@bgc.bard.edu

To Collect—Essentially

This article dates to August 2014, but its concerns remain current and pressing: what do the ways in which we “collect” and “conserve” the past reveal about what we want from it?

Melissa Eddy, “Lost in Translation: Germany’s Fascination with the American Old West”

http://http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/18/world/europe/germanys-fascination-with-american-old-west-native-american-scalps-human-remains.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A16%22%2C%221%22%3A%22RI%3A11%22%7D

EXH: Biomythography: Secret Poetry and Hidden Angers @ Claremont Graduate University

Claremont Graduate University (CGU’s) East and Peggy Phelps Galleries present the exhibition Biomythography: Secret Poetry and Hidden Angers, on view Oct. 20-31, 2014, with a public reception on Tuesday, Oct. 21 from 6-9 PM.

Biomythography, a literary term defined by poet Audre Lorde in her seminal piece Zami: A New Spelling of My Name as “combining elements of autobiography, the novel, and personal mythology,” has been know to shape theories of intersectionality and highlight the idea of internal, external, and multiple selves.

The exhibition Biomythography: Secret Poetry and Hidden Angers is the first in a series of exhibitions that seek to investigate biomythography as an interdisciplinary visual arts practice.

The exhibition, curated by Chris Christion and Jessica Wimbley, features video, performance, installation, sculpture, photography, and 2d mixed media works.

Artists Include: THE ADZE, Zeina Baltagi, Crystal Z. Campbell, Chris Christion, Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, Abdul Mazid, Dan Taulapapa McMullin, Thinh Nguyen, Juliana Paciulli, Glynnis Reed, Rachelle Rojany, Yoshi Sakai, Monica Sandoval, and Jessica Wimbley.

Programming during the exhibition includes:

• THE ADZE, Tuesday, Oct. 21 at 7 PM.

• Kingsley Tufts Poetry Reading & Art Exhibit, with featured readings by 2014 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award winner Afaa Michael Weaver, Pomona College Professor and Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets Claudia Rankine, and poets Elizabeth Cantwell and Jason Morphew. Friday, Oct. 24, from 6-9 PM.

CGU’s East and Peggy Phelps Galleries are at 251 E 10th Street in Claremont, CA 91711

http://www.biomythart.com

JOB: Assoc. Prof. Race and Racialization in Women’s Studies @ UMaryland, College Park

The University of Maryland, College Park invites applications for an appointment as associate professor in our interdisciplinary Women’s Studies Department.  We seek a senior scholar focusing on race and racialization, whose principal area of research is African American and/or African Diaspora related.

The successful applicant will be expected to teach courses in her or his area of expertise as well as to share in teaching the core undergraduate and graduate courses in Women’s Studies. The scholar in this position will have the opportunity to contribute to building departmental strengths and emphases, including the minor in Black Women’s Studies, as well as new curricula at the graduate and undergraduate level.  As a senior member of the faculty, the scholar is expected to participate actively in the life of the Department and the University.

We seek a scholar with a distinguished record of research and scholarship, a demonstrated commitment to excellence in teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and an aptitude for mentoring graduate students in an interdisciplinary program.  Ph.D. or comparable terminal degree required.

Applications should be submitted online to https://ejobs.umd.edu (position number 104153) and include a 3-4 page cover letter (describing scholarly achievements, contributions to relevant fields, and trajectory of work as it relates to current research agenda; teaching philosophy and experience, including experience in mentoring graduate and/or undergraduate students; and major contributions to the institutions, professions and communities in which the applicant has served),  a curriculum vitae, a writing sample (one article or book chapter), one syllabus, and the contact information for three recommenders who will submit their references online.  If there are other forms of work or urls related to their work that candidates want the committee to consider, applicants have the option of submitting a single pdf file with a representative sample.  For best consideration, please ensure that all application materials are uploaded by December 1, 2014.

For questions about the application process, contact JV Sapinoso at sapinoso@umd.edu; questions about the position should be addressed to:  Elsa Barkley Brown, Chair, Search Committee, via email to barkleyb@umd.edu.

The Women’s Studies Department at the University of Maryland is recognized as one of the leading programs in its field within the United States and beyond.  With twelve core faculty and more than eighty affiliate faculty, our department offers the B.A. and Ph.D. degrees, undergraduate certificates in LGBT Studies and in Women’s Studies, a minor in LGBT Studies, a joint minor  in Black Women’s Studies (with African American Studies), and a graduate certificate in Women’s Studies.  Feminist Studies, one of the leading journals of interdisciplinary scholarship in our field, is housed on our campus.  The University of Maryland is situated in the greater metropolitan area connecting Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., and has access to the exceptional range of rich cultural, political, and social resources there, including the executive offices of the National Women’s Studies Association.

The University of Maryland, College Park, actively subscribes to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity, and will not discriminate against any employee or applicant because of race, age, sex, color, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status, religion, ancestry or national origin, marital status, genetic information, political affiliation, and gender identity or expression. Minorities, Women, Protected Veterans and Individuals with Disabilities are encouraged to apply.   This position is contingent upon the continued availability of funds.

Visualizing Race, Ethnicity, and Nation in New Zealand

This article swings at and misses its targets; the journalist wants to express his admiration for what he reads as diversity and multicultural identity in New Zealand. But he fails to get out of the gate cleanly; he does not line up key terms to ensure that he and readers are on the same page when, for instance, “race” is evoked. For that reason, the absence of interrogation into historical relationships in the country is not surprising. One can only wish for a consideration of the Wellington (or Auckland) Street in this article. . . I guess the posted comments are telling.

There is something going on with haka performances. What do those who perform haka think they’re doing? What do various audiences see when they watch haka dances? Are they watching masquerade? Watching the visualization of a national anthem as movement and chanting? Is there a collective experience?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/13/-sp-new-zealand-teach-us-race-sport-ceremonies-legal-treaties#comments

JOB: Asst or Assoc Prof in Arts of the Black Atlantic World @ Duke University

Duke University, Durham North Carolina. Tenure-track Assistant Professor or Tenured Associate Professor in the Arts of the Black Atlantic World. The Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, jointly with the Department of African and African American Studies, seeks a scholar who broadly studies African artistic practices, tracing the relationships between, on the one hand, African art and visual culture and, on the other, African-influenced or-associated arts in the Americas and other diasporic locales. Duke University encourages interdisciplinary research and welcomes a variety of methods.

Especially encouraged to apply are specialists in Caribbean or Latin American art, media arts, or the historical and critical examination of race in visual representation. Applicants must have a Ph.D. in art history or a related discipline, demonstrate a strong research concentration in the visual arts, and be conversant with current methodological and theoretical issues.

Letters of application and a curriculum vitae should be submitted by November 1, 2014, to the automated job application service, www.academicjobsonline.org. All applications received by November 1, 2014, will be guaranteed consideration.

The Search Committee will interview at the African Studies Association Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, IN (20-23 November 2014).

Duke University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual’s age, color, disability, genetic information, gender, gender identity, national origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran status.