FALL 2014 Volume 21, No. 2 Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art Newsletter Founded in 1993 CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS?: CRISIS MANAGEMENT FOR THE CRISIS IN ART HISTORY By Karen J. Leader and Amy K. Hamlin downright awful: the job market and labor conditions in academia, the startling STEM-surgence and concomitant When Patricia Mainardi began to organize the board- constriction of the arts and humanities.³ Higher education sponsored session titled “The Crisis in Art History” for CAA is being pummeled from without through misguided austerity, 2011, she posed the following, two-part question to her student loan profiteering and ideological target practice, chosen participants: “Is there a crisis in art history, and, if and from within through genuine attempts at fiscal so, how does it affect what you do?”¹ We would like you to responsibility, disingenuous careerism and padding, stop reading now, and take a few moments to ask yourself reactionary management in a constant “crisis” mode, and that question, both parts. Think about yourself personally, paralyzing apathy and “I got mine-ism.”4 Museums have but also your institution, your colleagues, your students. Jot “blockbuster” syndrome and de-accessionitis, and libraries down a few notes. We’ll wait. (the Warburg) and collections (The Detroit Institute of Arts) are imperiled.5 The public discourse around such topics is Welcome back! Well, what do you think? Is there a crisis? If devastating at worst, unimaginative at best, and constitutes your answer is no, read on anyway. We hope to engage you a front line in our offense: change the conversation. either way. If your answer is yes, you do think there is some kind of crisis, you are not alone. So do we. Mainardi surveyed We admit to being idealistic and aspirational. Otherwise, her panelists’ myriad responses, constituting both diagnoses cynicism takes hold and then, why bother continuing? We and analyses, along with some remedies, when the proceeds firmly believe that art history is a discipline with a set of were published in Visual Resources, and she described the principles upon which to chart a path out of the morass. To contents as a “’rough draft’ of our comprehension of the situation.² That draft has acted upon us as a guidebook, and from its pages we launched a listening tour, but not in search of deeper diagnosis. Rather, our takeaway from the “rough draft” was to pick up the gauntlet, (and many of the ideas presented there), accept the provisional conclusions, and begin to gather and promote concrete actions. And we have taken some actions of our own. “How does it affect what you do?” Personally, professionally, institutionally, politically, there are ramifications, and slippery slopes, and domino effects to actions taken in response to a “crisis” situation. The state of affairs in certain areas is position art history as the paradigmatic humanities discipline, 4) Advocacy. as (former AHNCA President) Cassie Mansfield described it Movement beyond this moment of crisis requires active voices for us, opens it out to the many unique qualities our field countering the relentless din of naysayers and prophets of possesses, offering fruitful ground for model initiatives that doom, in popular media and the halls of power. Organizations are relevant to the broader issues at stake, both those directly like the one that affiliates us, the College Art Association, are impacting our discipline, and the crucial societal concerns the only as effective as the actions and support of their members. humanities are designed to address. We believe that art history, A glance at the CAA website, in particular the Advocacy tab, with its objects, its audiences, and its innate interdisciplinarity; reveals a history of communications and concrete actions, but with its potential in the digital age alongside its commitment only insofar as the membership sanctions that voice. to old-fashioned discernment, criticality and precise and careful Broadcasting our value requires all hands on deck, megaphone research and writing, offers the ground from which to proclaim in hand. a full-throated defense of humanistic learning, the liberal arts, and especially, the arts. But we must first be able to broadcast 5) Crowd-sourcing. art history’s many strengths. Articulating with verve and Not simply a buzzword, nor merely a way of subverting the precision the values of art history is basic triage for confronting authoritative voice, collective production brings to bear varied the crisis. And so we offer: viewpoints with different resources. Our promotion of this mode does not replace solid empirical research, but asserts KEYWORDS that the contributions of multiple stakeholders can magnify the message far more than the scribe in the study, speaking 1) Audience. only to the select few. We can make enormous progress by simply thinking differently about who needs, wants and/or benefits from, art history. Academic ACTION ITEMS art historians teach art history to a majority of students who will never “do” art history, yet will be enriched and empowered by 1) Let the next thing you do that is defined as “art history” its materials and methods. Museum professionals cater to an imagine a different audience. Then, take it to that audience. enormous audience who think they are just “looking at art” when they are actually experiencing art history in action. Rethinking 2) Find an example of an individual or group doing something the “user” for what art history produces, even if only a thought you believe would make art history stronger, more sustainable experiment, cracks open the value of what is often perceived as a in the 21st century. Send it to us to feature on our website. hermetic field. [email protected] 2) Initiative. 3) Imagine a project you have been working on, or just Pat Mainardi asked, “How does it affect what you do?” We ask, pondering, as a collaboration rather than an individual pursuit. “What are you going to do about it?” There is enormous creativity Can you use it to get promoted? Why or why not? and innovation in our field, which can be supported, expanded and promoted in initiatives that make art history better. AHNCA claims a perfect example in Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide that, IN THIS ISSUE: with its “Mellon Digital Humanities and Art History Series,” is boldly leading the way into 21st-century scholarship and publishing. p.04 / Greetings from the President p.05 / In Memoriam 3) Collaboration. p.06 / Symposia, Lectures, and Conferences While many practices of art history require collaboration, the most rewarded outcomes, especially in the academy, are single- p.11 / Grants and Fellowships authored books, articles, and catalogue essays. Individual voices p.19 / Prizes and Awards can produce great work, but collaboration creates community, p.21 / U.S. Exhibitions collegiality and change. There is an urgent need to re-engineer p.24 / International Exhibitions moribund incentive parameters, but only those individuals within p.28 /New Books such regimes who have power (the tenured, for example) can begin to legitimize the value of shared knowledge production, and validate it in promotion structures. 2 Fall 2014 / AHNCA Newsletter 4) Write and send a letter to a media outlet or political representative about an aspect of art history or related topic AHNCA WANTS YOU! that you believe needs attention. The Editor is actively seeking volunteers to help with 5) Add to our Claes Oldenburg-inspired, crowd-sourced the creation of content for the AHNCA Newsletter. manifesto by completing the sentence “I am for an art history Currently we are seeking a new editor for the “Symposia, that…” Contributions can be sent to iamforanarthistorythat@ Lectures and Conferences,” section, and we are looking gmail.com or Tweeted using the hashtag #iamforanarthistorythat for contributors for cover articles. We would also like to add editors and volunteers for other possible content, Pace Charles Baudelaire’s embrace of “l’impeccable naïveté,” such as advertising, images, and other features. we are not so naïve as to believe that anything we do will alone change a thing. We will, however, insist that to do If you are motivated and want to get more involved with nothing is to accept the unsustainable status quo in art AHNCA, we want YOU to join us! Involvement with history, and betray future generations. What have YOU done AHNCA is a great service to our field and would look for art history lately? great on any application you might be preparing. You will also work with excellent and friendly staff. Note: The authors are co-chairing an Open Forms Session If you are interested and could donate a few hours of (https://sites.google.com/site/arthistorythat/abstract), titled “What your time twice per year when the issues are in press, Have You Done for Art History Lately?: Initiatives for the Future of a please contact Caterina Y. Pierre at caterina.pierre@ Discipline,” at the 103rd Annual College Art Association Conference kbcc.cuny.edu for more information. You can also look in New York (February 2015). The session’s respondent will be Patricia for her at the AHNCA Business Meeting at the College Art Association Annual Conference in 2015 to learn Mainardi. more. 1Patricia Mainardi, “Introduction” to “The Crisis in Art History” Visual 2Resources 27:4 (December, 2011): 303. 3Ibid, 304. 4See, for example, Elizabeth Segran, “What Can You Do With a Humanities Ph.D., Anyway?” The Atlantic (31 March 2014), http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/03/what-can-you-do-with-a-humanities-phd- anyway/359927/ and Charlie Tyson, “Humanities vs. STEM, Redux,” Inside Higher Ed (18 August 2014), https://www. insidehighered.com/news/2014/08/18/new-study-assesses-humanities-impact-credits-earned-not-majors-declared. 4The authors recommend a new documentary that addresses many of these issues, especially the economic factors: Andrew Rossi’s Ivory Tower, 2014.