NEWSLETTER OF THE COLLEGE ART ASSOCIATION VOLUME 32 NUMBER 5 SEPTEMBER 2007 CAA NEWS Cultural Heritage in Iraq SEPTEMBER 2007 CAA NEWS 2 CONTENTS FEATURES 3 Donny George Is Dallas–Fort Worth Convocation Speaker FEATURES 4 Cultural Heritage in Iraq: A Conversation with Donny George 7 Exhibitions in Dallas and Fort Worth: Kimbell Art Museum 8 Assessment in Art History 13 Art-History Survey and Art- Appreciation Courses 13 Lucy Oakley Appointed caa.reviews Editor-in-Chief 17 The Bookshelf NEW IN THE NEWS 18 Closing of CAA Department Christopher Howard 19 National Career-Development Workshops for Artists FROM THE CAA NEWS EDITOR 19 MFA and PhD Fellowships Christopher Howard is editor of CAA News. 21 Mentors Needed for Career Fair 22 Participating in Mentoring Sessions With this issue, CAA begins the not-so-long road to the next 22 Projectionists and Room Monitors Needed Annual Conference, held February 20–23, 2008, in Dallas and 24 Exhibit Your Work at the Dallas–Fort Fort Worth, Texas. The annual Conference Registration and Worth Conference Information booklet, to be mailed to you later this month, 24 Annual Conference Update contains full registration details, information on special tours, workshops, and events at area museums, Career Fair instruc- CURRENTS tions, and much more. This publication, as well as additional 26 Publications updates, will be posted to http://conference.collegeart.org/ 27 Advocacy Update 2008 in early October. Be sure to bookmark that webpage! 27 Capwiz E-Advocacy This and forthcoming issues of CAA News will also con- tain crucial conference information. On the next page, we 28 CAA News announce Donny George as our Convocation speaker. Formerly 29 Affilated Society News director of the National Museum in Baghdad, the renowned END NOTES archaeologist now teaches at Stony Brook University and has spoken to Zainab Bahrani, a specialist in ancient Near Eastern 31 Solo Exhibitions by Artist Members art, about the current state of cultural heritage in Iraq. 33 Books Published by CAA Members In addition, this issue presents two essays on assessment 33 Exhibitions Curated by CAA Members and outcomes in art-history classes, continuing a precedent 34 People in the News of publishing on pedagogical issues in academia and the arts 35 Grants, Awards, and Honors set two years ago. I hope these texts, divergent in their points 37 Institutional News of view, are thought provoking and hopefully useful as the 37 Obituaries school year begins. 40 Opportunities As always, you can let me know your thoughts about CAA 42 Classifieds News. Write to [email protected]. 42 Datebook 43 Photo Credits Cover: The remains of the Ur III temple façade in Umma (Tell Jokha), Iraq, destroyed by looters looking for inscribed baked bricks (photo- graph by Joanne Farchakh-Bajjaly) CAA NEWS VOLUME 32, NUMBER 5 SEPTEMBER 2007 3 CAA NEWS SEPTEMBER 2007 FEATURES Donny George is Convocation Speaker at Dallas–Fort Worth Conference Donny George, the former director of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage in Iraq (SBAH) and director general of the National Museum in Baghdad, will be the keynote speaker at Convocation at the 2008 CAA Annual Conference in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. In his positions for the past twenty years, George led archaeological excavations in Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s reign. In 2004 he was appointed head of the National Museum Donny George (photograph provided by University Media Relations, Stony Brook University) and, two years later, chairman of the SBAH. George led the recovery of thousands of antiquities and sponsored by the Scholar Rescue Fund, a program of the art objects in the aftermath of the April 2003 looting of the Institute of International Education that provides refuge to National Museum. Approximately half of the fifteen thou- persecuted scholars. sand pieces—some six thousand years old—that represented Convocation takes place Thursday evening, February 21, Mesopotamian culture for centuries have been recovered. 2008, from 6:00 to 7:30 PM, at the Adam’s Mark Hotel in Dallas. Approximately seventeen thousand pieces have been recov- The event is open to both conference attendees and the gen- ered from other archaeological sites, but the total losses eral public. Preceding George’s address is the presentation of remain unknown. CAA’s annual Awards for Distinction by CAA president Nicola The termination of resources to support the special Courtright. The gala reception that follows Convocation takes antiquities protection force by the Iraq Ministry of Culture, place at the Nasher Sculpture Center from 7:30 to 9:30 PM crumbling security in the country, and political stonewalling (tickets are $35 in advance and $40 onsite). The Dallas Museum led to George’s departure in September 2006. Andrew Lawler of Art and the Crow Collection of Asian Art, both located adja- described the situation last month in Discover magazine: “The cent to the Nasher, will also be open free of charge during this 56-year-old archaeologist has been vilified as a Baathist sym- time; a conference badge is required for admission. See pathizer by American neoconservatives, criticized as pro-West http://conference.collegeart.org/2008 for more information by Sunnis, and viewed with suspicion by Shiites because of about the upcoming Annual Conference. his Christian background.”1 His family fled Iraq for Syria in 1. Andrew Lawler, “Discover Interview: Director of Iraq's National Museum,” Discover, September 2006 after receiving numerous death threats. Late August 2007, http://discovermagazine.com/2007/aug/discover-interview-director-iraqi last year, he was granted visas by the United States for him- -national-museum/. self, his wife, and son (two other children remain in Damascus). They are three of more than two million Iraqis who have fled the country since 2003, and are among only a few hundred who have reached the US. George is now visiting professor in the Department of Anthropology at Stony Brook University, State University of New York. In spring 2007 he taught classes and seminars on the archaeology of Mesopotamia and the cultural heritage of Iraq while also conducting research. His appointment is co- SEPTEMBER 2007 CAA NEWS 4 FEATURES vehicles. One of my main worries now is that Iraqi government Cultural Heritage in officials may decide to reopen the museum for public-rela- tion purposes, regardless of the worsening security situation Iraq: A Conversation in Baghdad. Such a move would greatly endanger both the with Donny George museum collection and the lives of the staff. ZB: I can see that happening since something similar occurred Zainab Bahrani is Edith Porada Professor of Ancient Near when the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) decided to Eastern Art at Columbia University in New York. exhibit the Nimrud gold in Baghdad in July 2003. It was another decision that disregarded the safety of the antiquities, made Although four and a half years have passed since the looting of for the purposes of saying, “Look, isn’t everything in order and the museums and libraries of Iraq, many in academia and the back to normal! Isn’t the outcry about the looting an exaggera- arts in the United States are still unclear about the extent of the tion!” The exhibition was created for spin, because it was cer- destruction and losses from that time. The press gave conflict- tainly not open to the Iraqi people, only to the Western media ing and inaccurate reports, and the few descriptive accounts and members of the CPA. published so far have come from members of the US military or from European and American officials and journalists who were Standing monuments, mosques, and in Iraq for only a short time. churches, are being destroyed every In the following conversation, Zainab Bahrani and Donny day, and military bases continue to be George, formerly director of the State Board of Antiquities and placed on archaeological sites. Heritage in Iraq (SBAH) and director of the National Museum in Baghdad and currently visiting professor at Stony Brook University, the State University of New York, address these con- DG: This is exactly what worries me, that the museum col- cerns and more. Bahrani and George spoke in June. lection will be sacrificed in the service of public relations. If Iraqi officials open the museum now, it will be so that they can Zainab Bahrani: At this time five years ago, you were prepar- put a good face on things, so that they can say, “Look, Baghdad ing the Iraq Museum for the approaching war. It is widely is safe and the city is under control”—whereas it is clearly a known now that the museum was looted in April 2003, along place of lawless violence and chaos. If the museum is reopened, with other museums and libraries, including the Museum of who would come to see it in the midst of all this violence? Modern Art and the National Library and State Archives of People are afraid to leave their houses, and my colleagues there Iraq. Since then there has been so much more destruction of tell me that this sense of living in extreme danger is still their ancient sites and monuments, and hundreds of academics and daily situation. artists have been killed or have left the country because of threats to their lives. Last year you came to the United States to ZB: I do think that the cultural heritage of Iraq has been sacri- teach at Stony Brook, after your family was specifically threat- ficed from the start of the US occupation for the purposes of PR. ened with being killed. I would like to talk about what the situ- If we go back to the very beginning—spring 2003—the looting ation at the SBAH and the Iraq Museum were when you left, received a great deal of coverage by US press, which raised and what your main concerns are for cultural heritage and for awareness of the disaster.