CFP: The Afterlives of Objects: Impermanence in American Art

Sarah Beetham Discussion

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CALL FOR PAPERS for SECAC 2016:

The Afterlives of Objects: Impermanence in American Art

In the wake of the racially motivated murder of nine parishioners of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in June 2015, activists called for the removal of Confederate monuments from American public spaces. Erected in the post-Civil War decades as symbols of a dominant Lost Cause ideology, these monuments are implicated in a changing public consciousness regarding the history of American race relations. In changing times, the future of these works is uncertain.

The recent firestorm surrounding Confederate memorial art calls attention to the sometimes checkered history of works of art following their initial creation. Art historical studies often focus on artistic impulses, patronage, and social history at the moment of creative origin. But public artworks face the effects of weather, accident, vandalism, and changing popular opinion. Museum collections require conservation, and once-celebrated works are forgotten or lost. In their afterlives, all works of art are subject to the march of time.

This session invites papers addressing the issue of impermanence in the art of the Americas. Possible subjects may include: alteration or removal of public art; natural disasters; vandalism and iconoclasm; memory and forgetting; conservation issues; unstable materials; planned obsolescence; repatriation; and other related themes.

Session Chair: Sarah Beetham, University of Delaware, sbeetham@udel.edu

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The city of Roanoke, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Hollins University are proud to host the 73nd annual SECAC meeting from October 19-22, 2016.

Join us in the beautiful mountains of Southwest Virginia for SECAC 2016, hosted by Virginia Tech with Hollins University, October 19-22, 2016. Sessions will take place at the official conference hotel, the Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center (warm chocolate chip cookies upon arrival!). Hotel Roanoke is in the heart of downtown Roanoke within walking distance of the Taubman Museum of Art, The Harrison Museum of African American Culture, and the O Winston Link Museum, as well as restaurants and bars.

Information about SECAC, abstract guidelines and submission procedures available at: http://www.secacart.org/conference

Deadline: April 20, 2016