November 7–8, 2014, 10am–5pm
To register: [email protected] / T +1 413 458 0469
The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
225 South Street
Williamstown, Massachusetts 01267
T +1 413 458 2303
Join us Friday, November 7, and Saturday, November 8 for “Art History and Emergency,” a Clark Conference in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Over the course of two days, this Clark Conference will assess art history’s specific roles and responsibilities with regard to the condition widely described as the “humanities crisis.” What part has art history to play in the situation and the development of strategies for dealing with it? From where in our midst might the champions of humanities research emerge or already exist? Participants will explore several questions, including recognizing that this crisis is but the latest of many, what role has “crisis” played in the humanities’ history? How are artists, art historians, and professionals in related disciplines responding to current pressures to prove their worth? By this we mean, what are they doing, and how are they doing it? How does one defend the practical value of knowing how to think deeply about objects and images without losing the intellectual intensity that characterizes the best work in the discipline? Does art as we know it have a future? Is art history defensible? What’s the point?
Participants include Caroline Arscott, Head of Research, The Courtauld Institute of Art; Manuel Borja-Villel, director, The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía; Benjamin Buchloh, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Modern Art, Harvard University; Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, independent curator; Thomas Crow, Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art and Associate Provost for the Arts, New York University; Patrick Flores, professor of art history, theory, and criticism, University of the Philippines-Diliman; Marjorie Garber, William R. Kenan, junior professor of English and Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University; Kajri Jain, associate professor of Indian visual culture and contemporary art, University of Toronto; Anatoli Mikhailov, rector and founder, European Humanities University; Mary Miller, Sterling Professor of History of Art, Yale University; Molly Nesbit, professor of art, Vassar College; Our Literal Speed; Michael Rakowitz, artist, Northwestern University; and Howard Singerman, Phyllis and Josef Caroff Professor of Fine Arts and Department Chair, Hunter College, City University of New York.
To register, please email [email protected] or call T +1 413 458 0469.