SPRING 2006
From the Director
I have had a productive semester (even on sabbatical it's hard not to think in terms of semesters). At the end of last semester (December 2005) I presented a paper at the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS), "If It Happened Here...: Berlin's Holocaust Memorials and the Art of Implication." In February I co-chaired and participated in a panel for the Womens Caucus for Art (WCA), "From Heroes to Victims: American Memorials and their Subjects." I have been asked to contribute an essay to the planned publication of the conference. Tentatively titled "Permanently Gendered: Women as Seen in New York City's Public Art," it will consider the way women are represented in our urbanscape. Some of the images are unsettling; think Statue of Liberty or Alice in Wonderland... I have just completed an essay on Louise Nevelson's public art for the upcoming retrospective at The Jewish Museum, scheduled to open in March 2007. My essay, "Mourning in Protest: Spontaneous Memorials and the Sacralization of Public Space," in Jack Santino, ed. Spontaneous Shrines and the Public Memorialization of Death (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2006) will be out this spring, as will an article in Public Art Review in an issue devoted to teaching public art.
On 21 April I participated in a very interesting discussion at the Whitney Museum of
American Art organized around the subject of the Whitney and Academe. A group
of educators including art historians, critics and artists, all actively teaching and
publishing or exhibiting their work were joined by Director Adam Weinberg, Raina
Lampkins-Fielder, Associate Director and Chair of Education, and Frank Smigiel,
Manager of Adult Public Programs to discuss ways in which upcoming exhibitions
might be integrated into our curricula and other ways of using the museum's resources
for higher education. This group will meet again in the fall and I encourage
you to think of ways you would like the Museum to address your needs.
For this second newsletter we have added an MA Theses in Process section.
Please keep us updated with your final topics and progress. As always, we welcome
your suggestions for the newsletter and all matters pertaining to the program.
- Dr. Harriet F. Senie
Director of Museum Studies
Professor of Art History
MA Theses in Process
Francesca Arcilesi, Piero della Francesca: "A Historiography of the Madonna della Misericordia," Advisor: Prof. Anne Leader.
Deirdre Conneely, "Losing the Collection: Museums and Claim of Ownership," Advisor: Prof. Jeffrey Feldman.
Mary Ann Furman, "The Pedagogy of Moholy-Nagy and His Impact on American Art Education" (working title), Advisor: Prof. Harriet F. Senie
Geaninne Gutierrez-Guimaraes, "Photojournalism in Cuba during the 1960s" (working title), Advisor: Prof. Anna Indych
Sachiko Hisajima, "Takashi Murakami and Traditional Japanese Art," Advisor: Dr. Reiko Tomii.
Jason Holton, "Graffiti in New York: The Appropriation of Art Historical Genres and Subjects into the Piece," Advisor: Prof. Anna Indych.
Sarah Roberts, "Retooling the Industrial for the Cultural: Dia:Beacon and MASS MoCA," Advisor: Prof. Harriet F. Senie
Shin Yamauchi, "Bombing from Within The System: Barry Mc- Gee's Attitude and Method to Create Installations," Advisor: Prof.Jeffrey Feldman.
Graduating Spring 2006
Sa'dia Rehman, "Inventing a Language: The Use of Text in the Works of Six South Asian Artists of the Diaspora," advisors: Atteqa Ali (outside reader) and Prof. Harriet F. Senie. As part of her thesis Sa'dia curated an exhibition that will be at Smack Mellon, 92 Plymouth Street, in Brooklyn from May 6th through the 18th. Be sure to see it!
Semester and Upcoming Events
Re-Cast: Postmodern Classical II
As many of you know, City College's Parthenon casts are on longterm loan to the Alexander S. Onassis Benefit Foundation, USA, installed in the lobby of Olympic Tower (Fifth Avenue between 51st and 52nd Street). The foundation, which has its headquarters in Olympic Tower sponsored the original restoration and installation of the casts, a seminar, and an exhbition. Museum studies students curated and organized all aspects of Re-Cast: Postmodern Classical I and wrote and edited the accompanying catalog. The exhibition, which opened in March 2002 was installed in the south lobby of Olympic Tower, opposite the casts. It was accompanied by a day-long symposium exploring the use of casts in museums, the academy and the studios of contemporary artists. It will soon be time for another seminar to develop Re-Cast: Postmodern Classical II, the second in a planned series intended to explore the ways contemporary artists continue to interpret and use the classical tradition. Since a restaurant now occupies the space where Re-Cast: Postmodern Classical I was installed, we are now exploring other possible venues. Suggestions are welcome.