2017 CAA Call for Papers for "Public Art in the Era of Black Lives Matter”

Posted: 
March 22, 2016
"Public Art in the Era of Black Lives Matter” Public Art Dialogue (PAD) sponsored session at CAA February 15-18, 2017, New York. As the #BlackLivesMatter social movement has exposed the specious nature of claims that the U.S. is a post-racial society, it has prompted a coming to terms with under-acknowledged histories of slavery, segregation, police brutality, mass incarceration, and other forms of racism. Symbols of the Confederacy in the public sphere, whether flags or sculptures, have become renewed sites of contention for contemporary protesters in the black liberation struggle.  This session aims to explore how artists (digital, performance, conceptual, traditional) working in the public sphere have engaged these histories of oppression and attempted to start new conversations using visual imagery and other public interventions. How have artists and community members supported and promoted a 21st-century “counterpublic” sphere? What does the counterpublic sphere mean in the 21st century? How does the counterpublic engage antiracism initiatives and intersect with multiple identities? What challenges have public artists faced in this arena and what successes have they had?  Case studies are welcome as are proposals for future projects. This session encouragesparticipation from artists, art historians, curators and public arts administrators.  Please send a one-page abstract and short c.v. by Tuesday, April 5 to: La Tanya Autry, PhD candidate, Department of Art History, University of Delaware Marcia Brady Tucker Fellow, Yale University Art Gallery [email protected] & Jennifer Wingate, Associate Professor of Fine Arts, St. Francis College [email protected]