The Voice of CWAC

We are so pleased to announce that CWAC is getting a new floor. Here’s why (a particularly stunning example of our current floor):

And now we need your opinion. A or B? Vote in the comments!

Tags: Building

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Irene Backus, who is in Italy doing research, gave me permission to raid her Facebook page  for photos. These are just two of her charming images from La Biennale di Venezia.

Tags: Fieldwork

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Photo submitted by Jin Xu.

After the Autumn Town Hall, it was suggested that we post a list of our students alongside institutions where they have done research. The reasoning: wouldn’t it help future field-researchers to know who has previous experience with a given institution? Yes, it would. Right? So, here is a list-in-progress. If you are about to embark on a trip to any of these places, get in touch with the students who’ve been before. They’ll be glad to share tips, pointers, warnings, advice, etc.

Argentina:Buenos Aires

Harper Montgomery: Fundación Espigas, Fundación Hidalgo, Museo de Bellas Artes, Museo de Bellas Artes.

Brazil: São Paulo

Adrian Anagnost: Museo de Arte São Paulo (MASP), Universidade de São Paulo (USP) art library, Galeria Brito.

Hungary: Budapest

Chriscinda Henry: Museum of Fine Arts (Italian Renaissance Paintings)

China: Beijing

Eleanor Hyun: National Library of China, Peking University Library, Tsinghua University Library.

Julia Orell: Peking University Library (incl. Rare Books and departmental libraries), National Library, Palace Museum.

China: Shanghai

Julia Orell: Shanghai Museum (painting storage) .

Croatia: Cavtat

Rachel Rossner: Kuća Vlaho Bukovac, Zbirka Baltazara Bogišića HAZU.

Croatia: Dubrovnik

Rachel Rossner: Državni arhiv u Dubrovniku, Znanstvena knjižnica, Zavod za povijesne znanosti u Dubrovniku HAZU.

Croatia: Zagreb

Rachel Rossner: Nacionalna i sveučilišna knjižnica, Strossmayerova galerija, Moderna galerija.

France: Paris

Joyce Cheng: BNF (Richelieu/François Mitterand), INHA, Bibliothèque Kandinsky Centre de Documentation, Médiathèque du Musée du Quai Branly.

Katie Kirtland: Bibliothèque du Film (BIFI),Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Archives françaises du film de CNC (in Bois D’Arcy, suburban Paris), Film Archives of the Cinematheque Française (in Fort de Saint Cyr, suburban Paris).

Rachel Rossner: BIbliothèque Nationale, Musée d’Orsay.

Marin Sarvé-Tarr: Bibliothèque Roméo Martinez at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Bpi at the Centre Pompidou, Bibliothèque Ste Geneviève.

Germany: Dresden

Chriscinda Henry: Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister (Italian Renaissance Paintings).

Germany: Munich

Chriscinda Henry: Alte Pinakothek (Italian Renaissance Paintings).

Italy: Bergamo

Chriscinda Henry: Biblioteca Angelo Mai, Accademia Carrara.

Italy: Florence

Irene Backus: Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Archivio di Stato, Kunsthistorisches Institut.

Chriscinda Henry: Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale

Italy: Rome

Ingrid Greenfield: American Academy in Rome, the Biblioteca Hertziana, the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, the Biblioteca di Archeologia e Storia dell’Arte, the Instituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente.

Italy: Venice

Chriscinda Henry: Archivio di Stato, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Museo e Biblioteca Correr, Museo e Biblioteca Querini Stampalia, Gallerie dell’Accademia.

Mexico: Mexico City

Harper Montgomery: Archivo General de la Nacion (AGN), CENIDIAP (National Fine Arts Archives), Calles Archives in a private foundation in La Condesa, MUNAL (National Museum), Biblioteca Nacional.

Montenegro: Cetinje

Rachel Rossner: Dvor Kralja Nikole I, Centralna narodna biblioteka Crne Gore, Državni arhiv Crne Gore.

Russia: St. Petersburg

Chriscinda Henry: Hermitage State Museum (Italian Renaissance Paintings, Research Library).

South Korea: Seoul

Eleanor Hyun: National Library of Korea, Seoul National University Library.

Switzerland: Lausanne

Adrian Anagnost: Musée de l’Elysée (musée pour la Photographie).

Switzerland: Neuchâtel

Adrian Anagnost: Institut Suisse pour la Conservation de la Photographie (ISCP).

Taiwan: Taipei

Eleanor Hyun: National Taiwan University Library, National Palace Museum Library.

Julia Orell: National Palace Museum (ordering images only).

United States: Los Angeles

Sarah Miller: Getty Research Institute Special Collections.

United States: New York City

Kris Cohen: MOMA Architecture and Design Collection, Felix-Gonzalez-Torres Foundation Andrea Rosen Gallery.

Anna Lee: The International Center of Photography.

Sarah Miller: Museum of Modern Art Archives, Metropolitan Museum Photography Department Archival Collections.

United States: Rochester, NY

Anna Lee: The George Eastman House of Photography and Film (in both the photography and technology collections)

United States: Tucson

Sarah Miller: Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona.

United States: Washington, DC

Katie Kirtland: Film Archive of the Library of Congress.

Anna Lee: The National Gallery of Art (department of photographs), Smithsonian National Museum of American History (photographic history collection)

Sarah Miller: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Tags: Fieldwork

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Earlier this week, the graduate students of this department met with Joel Snyder, Christine Mehring, and Rebecca Kosick (me!) to discuss life in the department. We updated the students on some news and upcoming events. The students got the chance to raise concerns and questions. Oh, and there were tea sandwiches.

Here’s a review of what we talked about:

Announcements

• At our last Town Hall (Spring 2009), some students raised questions about UMI’s strict image rights policies. Because the University requires students to publish their dissertations to UMI/Proquest upon graduation (no embargo), students were concerned about delaying graduation or facing potentially steep rights-related expenses. Since last Spring, we’ve found out that UMI will allow students to black out those images for which rights have not been secured. For these images, students should include a caption. We know this is not ideal, but it will allow students to graduate on time and avoid some expense. We’re looking into the rule against embargoing.
• We are planning two graduate student workshops: a fieldwork roundtable, and a discussion with Susan Bielstein about turning the dissertation into a book. The fieldwork roundtable will take place on January 7. We hope to set a date for the dissertation—>book workshop soon. See our internal calendar for more information.
• We have two searches going on this year. One in Early Modern and one for a Terra Postdoc in American Art prior to 1945. We also looking forward to Cécile Fromont and Claudia Brittenham joining us in the coming years. We’re excited about a new faculty cluster in African and Latin American that is emerging with Cécile and Claudia’s appointments.
• We’re planning a major, two-part renovation to the building. The first part will involve replacing all the floor tile in CWAC, and the second part will be the renovation of the VRC to make room for new faculty offices upstairs.
• We hope to have a holiday party, details TBD.
• The CAJ is planning a launch party for Volume 19 of the journal. They hope to announce a date soon.
• Faculty are talking about revising the department’s approach to the dissertation proposal. We’re hoping that, after students submit a first, serious draft, they could meet with all their committee members at once to get feedback on the proposal.

Student Questions

• Students noted that the bathrooms have been less-than-clean lately. We’re looking into this with Facilities.
• Students expressed concern about swine flu in light of course and departmental requirements. Likewise with all serious illnesses, the department will take a generous approach. If you are sick and getting behind in your schoolwork, get in touch with Joel, Christine, or Becky. Arrangements for extensions and the like will be made on a case by case basis. And if you are sick and just need a hand with anything, get in touch with us. Joel said “we’ll send troops to you.”
• Students would like to know faculty’s leave schedule. As soon as we know, we can post this in the office and on the blog. Also, please note that faculty in our department have agreed they will be available for consultation, guidance, and reference-letter-writing even while on leave.
• Students wondered how to handle questions from prospective students. In general, if you cannot answer a question posed by a prospective student, you can refer them to a few people: for technical questions regarding GRE scores, the online application, etc, refer them to Sarah Tuohey. For programatic or department-specific questions, refer prospective students to Christine or Becky.
• If you have any other concerns or comments, feel free to email Becky!

Tags: Announcements, Town Hall

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Classes start today. To commemorate this, the temperature dropped 20 degrees. Good thing Tara brought the plants in last week.

In other recent relocation news, the VRC’s lantern slides were packed up and moved last week to Theaster Gates’ new space on Dorchester.

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Oh, hello. Welcome to The Voice of CWAC, the new Art History Department Blog. We hope to use this space to bring you news and announcements, to share photos and overly sentimental narratives of recent departmental parties, and for other as-yet-undetermined (but surely art historical) purposes. Onward!

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