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www.aah.org.uk For information on advertising,BULLETIN membership and distribution contact: AAH Administrator, 70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ Tel: 020 7490 3211; Fax: 020 7490 3277; <[email protected]> 103 Editor: Jannet King, 48 Stafford Road, Brighton BN1 5PF <[email protected]> FEB 2010 A NEW DESIGN FOR ART HISTORY ssue 1 of volume 33, scheduled for publication this THE SEARCH FOR A DESIGNER I February, will see the first comprehensive redesign of With these thoughts in mind, we were fortunate enough Art History since its launch in 1978. This radical act is not to have the immediate and enthusiastic support of both intended to signal revolution, but it is an the AAH Executive and the publishers, Wiley-Blackwell, acknowledgement that times have moved on in the in tackling the rather forbidding task of redesigning more than 30 years since the first design. Publishing such an established and successful format. Christine technology now allows a far richer range of possibilities Riding’s role as a curator at Tate has given her than was the case in the late 1970s. Colour reproduction, considerable experience in working with professional the size and detail of images, the variety of layouts, all designers and in assembling and designing exhibition are vastly greater in comparison. Looking at the catalogues. Christine led the initiative to find appearance of recent volumes we began to see that the professional designers we could work with productively distance that had opened up between this potent array and, ably assisted by Sam Bibby, she has run the of choices and the existing format of the journal, and campaign to produce the new design that is being which seemed to be widening almost by the month, was launched with issue 33.1. ► becoming just too great to set aside. New cover design. The previous design had served us well, and expressed in particular the intention of Art History under successive editors to be a serious academic journal, one that encouraged diverse subjects, methods and approaches and that placed a premium on successful innovation, experimentation and plurality. The look of the original design said these things plainly, and asserted the journal’s aspiration to deal with the materials of the discipline from a position as far as possible from the marketplace. If we were going to make any changes we knew we would want to preserve these visual messages because they continue to be the guiding principles of the current editorial team. Art History is about an intellectual continuity in interest and approach, in plurality and in innovation, and in perspective. We wanted any change, whether revision or entirely new design, to reflect this continuity and the editors’ commitment to the principles that have led the journal since its foundation. Above all, we knew that any changes to the existing design would need to serve the intellectual matter of Art History better than the first design, or they would not be worth doing. We also knew that we wanted a redesign to come from a close working relationship with professional designers, both because a journal devoted to the visual needs to take proper account of visual things, and because we wanted the benefits that professional expertise can confer. NEW-STYLE ART HISTORY The first steps, once we knew that the Executive and the GREATER FLEXIBILITY publishers were on board, was to locate two design So how, in detail, is the new design an improvement? firms, each with different tried and tested approaches to First, the new design gives us a larger page. It makes the the design of comparable projects, and invite them to space available for text and images much more tender for the job of redesigning Art History. The remit substantial and more flexible, so that images can be we gave the two firms that we eventually settled on was offered to the reader in a broader range of sizes, while clear. We wanted to maintain a strong continuity with the layout options available provide greater practicality the existing design, we wanted to express the than at present. Even tricky panoramic compositions, intellectual character and aims of the journal in a visual such as Frith’s Derby Day and the Bayeux Tapestry (to form, and we wanted to take advantage of the new cite two examples we have recently had to wrestle with possibilities for a journal concerned with the visual that in the journal), can now be better accommodated and technology had provided since the first design was made more legible. In keeping with this helpful increase launched. Supporting the intellectual integrity of the in size, all aspects of the journal’s visual presentation of essays and reviews we publish was foremost in the list content have been revisited and rationalized, with of what the redesign needed to do. We wanted the clarity, consistency, and sustainability as the leading design to enhance the authors’ arguments by providing criteria. Thus, the front cover will now always have a a stronger visual counterpart to their verbal arguments. full-bleed image with the title Art History in the same top-left position and in either black or white. Once the two original tenders were in, we selected, in consultation with the AAH, the journal’s Editorial Perhaps the most important recent design innovation in Board, and the publishers, the one which stood out for the journal was the introduction of colour illustrations us as the most effective and exciting. The design came from issue 5 of volume 31. We are now extending this to from Atelier Works – a graphic design studio that include headings and titles. One feature of the new specializes in branding – where Quentin Newark and design, in fact, revisits an earlier incarnation of Art Paola Faoro provided wonderful ideas and solutions to History by providing colour-coded spines to differentiate our brief. Atelier’s design was flexible, responsive to our the volumes. The volume colour also now appears on remit, and sensitive to the academic priority of the the contents page, masthead, and abstracts and journal’s mission. As it evolved over a number of drafts biographies pages. and discussions, the design came to seem to us With an eye to the way the journal flows, we have powerful, supple, and expressive without being at all ensured that each section of an issue now has a more intrusive. We are truly delighted with the result. sharply defined visual identity to provide a logical as well as lively visual experience for the reader. We have Contents moved abstracts and biographies, until now left to languish at the back, forward to the introductory matter Annual Reports to follow the masthead and contents pages. We have Chair 3 also introduced short biographies for reviewers and Programme Coordinator 4 Museums & Exhibitions 5 designed a more visually prominent reviews section to Independents 6 emphasize this vital part of the journal’s provision. Senior Administrator 7 The new design may take an issue or two to become Hon Secretary 8 Students 9 familiar, but what lies inside the covers remains the CIHA British National Committee 10 same. Art History is still as dedicated as it always has The Art Book 11 been to exciting and adventurous research and writing Art History 12 in the discipline, but now the visual evidence can be AGM agenda 9 communicated more effectively to enhance the arguments. We are delighted with the new design and Journal of Art Historiography 12 feel sure the journal’s readers will be too. Museums & Exhibitions Groups News 13 DAVID PETERS CORBETT Independents Group News 14 Schools Group News 16 Editor, Art History Student Summer Symposium 17 New Voices report 18 Advertising in Bulletin Careers Day 19 Opportunities 20 Contact Bulletin editor regarding advertising rates: [email protected] Annual Conference – Glasgow 2010 22 Commercial rates apply to adverts for academic Conference News 38 courses, and for any commercial venture Annual Conference – Warwick 2011 39 Exhibitions Diary 39 Adverts for jobs, fellowships, grants and conferences are included gratis, with layout at the editor’s Executive Committee contact details 40 discretion, depending on space available. 2 ANNUAL REPORTS Annual Reports – for presentation at AGM ●16 April 2010 AAH Chair’s Report his is my last report as Chair of the Association of choice for a broad range of students from different T Art Historians. It has been a turbulent three years, backgrounds. During this year, we have also had with many exciting and positive moments as well as productive conversations with the chair of CIHA to difficulties. When I took over in 2007, we undertook a ensure effective co-ordination between our two groups, survey to find out what members wanted from their and are looking to increase the international dimensions Association. The overwhelming response was that of the work we do. All these efforts are made possible by members valued the sense of belonging to a professional the hard work of the AAH members’ group chairs, who community. There was also considerable appreciation of sit on the Executive Committee, and I am very grateful the way our journals, our events for students and, above for their leadership. I would also like to thank all the all, our annual conference allowed art historians from members of the EC who have served the AAH over the across the UK and abroad to come together to discuss past three years for their dedication. the most recent innovations in our field and to discuss Many activities, reports and publishing initiatives have issues of common interest. This sense of a strong occurred during my tenure. You will be able to see the professional identity was reinforced in 2008 when the results of the Art History editorial team’s complete results of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) were redesign of the journal at the AAH conference.