Small Victories in the Restitution "Wars"

Of the few small victories during this past decade of renewedscholarly activism, public pressure, and tactical diplomacy about the Ancient Benin royal objects in western museums and collections, the most significant, strategically, perhaps, is getting major keepers of these treasures to formally acknowledge them as LOOTED by including this historical fact in the object labels. It used to be that their provenance began with names of the first white men to inherit or purchase the stolen objects from whom they made their way into the museum. 

Standing in the British Museum's Sainsbury Africa Galleries, and eavesdropping on many a visitors' judgments on the ethics of imperial looting as they surveyed the display, I am confident that the final word on the long term fate of the captive objects will be different. May be not in my lifetime, but some day after.

In the meantime, now that Labour is power in the UK, I hope they do not continue the awful attitude of the Conservatives who saw the matter of restitution as their cheap football for their impoverished culture wars. For the trustees of US museums, it is high time they get off their post-imperial high horses!

2024 African Studies Association Distinguished Lecture

 

ACASA Triennial 2024 Open Session: Best Practices for Restitution and Care of African Art in US Museums

Since the previous Triennial in 2021, a group of over seventy ACASA members and international experts have worked together to produce a best practices document for the restitution and ethical care of African arts in United States museum collections. In a special session of the 2024 ACASA Triennial, the leaders of this project will present the final document to the public and discuss how it was crafted. Presenters will reflect on how this group assessed case studies and set criteria for returns. Speakers will also share the next steps intended to ensure that procedures outlined in the document are attainable for all museums.   Please forward this information to anyone who may be interested in attending:    11:15am-1:15pm CT Friday, August 9, 2024 DePaul Conference Center & Zoom Free and Open to the Public Zoom Information: Meeting ID: 83770192148 Passcode: 847700

Zoom Link

Please contact Caroline Bastian, ACASA Project Manager, for any questions or comments at bastian@acasaonline.org.

Announcement: The International Jury of the 60th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia

 La Biennale di Venezia

60th International Art Exhibition

Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere

The International Jury

of the Biennale Arte 2024 /

Julia Bryan-Wilson president

Venice, April 4th, 2024 – 

The International Jury of the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia is made up of Julia Bryan-Wilson (president), American curator and professor at Columbia University; Alia Swastika, Indonesian curator and writer; Chika Okeke-Agulu, Nigerian curator and art critic; Elena Crippa, Italian curator; María Inés Rodríguez, French-Colombian curator.

The appointment of the Jury has been deliberated by the Board of Directors of La Biennale di Venezia upon recommendation by Adriano Pedrosa, the Curator of the 60th Exhibition titled Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere, that will be held in Venice (Giardini and Arsenale) from April 20th to November 24th, 2024. 

Julia Bryan-Wilson – president – is Professor of Contemporary Art and LGBTQ+ Studies at Columbia University. Her curatorial credits include Cecilia Vicuña: About to Happen (with Andrea Andersson) and Louise Nevelson: Persistence. She is the author of Art Workers: Radical Practice in the Vietnam War Era; Fray: Art and Textile Politics (winner of the ASAP Book Prize, the Frank Jewett Mather Award, and the Robert Motherwell Book Award); and Louise Nevelson’s Sculpture: Drag, Color, Join, Face. Bryan-Wilson was a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow.

Alia Swastika is a curator and researcher/writer that expands her practices in the last 10 years on the issue and perspectives of decoloniality and feminism, where she involved with different projects of decentralization of art, rewriting art history and encouraging local activism. She works as the Director of Biennale Jogja Foundation in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. She continues her researches on Indonesian female artists during Indonesia’s New Order and how the politics of gender from the regime influenced the practices of artists from that period. She is now part of curatorial team of Sharjah Biennale 16 in 2025.

Chika Okeke-Agulu is Director of the Program in African Studies, Director of Africa World Initiative, and Robert Schirmer Professor of Art & Archaeology and African American Studies, Princeton University. Okeke-Agulu is Slade Professor of Fine Art, University of Oxford (2023), and a Fellow of The British Academy. He is editor of Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art and author of El Anatsui. The Reinvention of Sculpture (2022). He is on the advisory board of the Hyundai Tate Research Centre, Tate Modern.

Elena Crippa is an Italian curator based in London. Since 2023, she has been Head of Exhibitions at London’s Whitechapel Gallery. She was previously Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Tate Britain, where her exhibitions explored transnational and transcultural intersections and engaged with art from a global perspective. Her shows at Tate included All Too Human (2018), Frank Bowling (2019) Paula Rego (2021) and the 2022 commission Hew Locke: The Procession.

María Inés Rodríguez is a Colombian French curator, currently Director of the Walter Leblanc Foundation in Brussels and Artistic Director of Tropical Papers. With a profound commitment to fostering a dialogue between artistic production and historical, political, and social contexts on both local and global levels, she has consistently championed the interconnectedness of art and its broader cultural implications. She was the Director of the CAPC Musée d'art Contemporain, Bordeaux, Curator at Large at MASP, São Paulo; Chief Curator at the MUAC in Mexico City, as well as at the MUSAC in Spain and guest curator at the Jeu de Paume in Paris.

The International Jury will award the following official prizes:

• Golden Lion for best National Participation
• Golden Lion for best participant in the International Exhibition Stranieri Ovunque –Foreigners Everywhere
• Silver Lion for a promising young participant in the International Exhibition Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere

The Jury may also award:

• a maximum of one special mention to National Participations
• a maximum of two special mentions to the participants in the International Exhibition Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere

The Awards Ceremony will take place in Venice on Saturday, April 20th 2024.

Official website of the Biennale Arte 2024: www.labiennale.org

Official hashtags: #BiennaleArte2024 #StranieriOvunque #ForeignersEverywhere

IMAGES of the Biennale Arte 2024 may be downloaded at the following link:

https://cloud.labiennale.org/url/biennale2024

password: biennale2024

CONTACTS

Visual Arts and Architecture Press Office

La Biennale di Venezia

Ph. +39 041 5218 - 846/849 | pressoffice@labiennale.org

Facebook: La Biennale di Venezia | X: @la_Biennale

Instagram: @labiennale | YouTube: BiennaleChannel

Two-Year Funded International Fellowship in UK Institutions

The International Fellowships Programme provides support for outstanding early career researchers to make a first step towards developing an independent research career through gaining experience across international borders. Each award is expected to involve a specific and protected research focus with the award holder undertaking high quality, original research.

This scheme is jointly run by the British Academy and the Royal Society.

Aims

The overarching aim of the International Fellowships Programme is to attract and retain emerging talent in the UK and build a globally connected, mobile research and innovation workforce. The objectives are to:

• Attract talented international early career researchers to establish and conduct their research in the UK;
• Support early career researchers to pursue high-quality and innovative lines of research;
• Provide opportunities to acquire and transfer new skills and knowledge through training and career development;
• Foster long-term relationships through networking opportunities and the International Fellowships alumni programme.

Eligibility Requirements

The applicant must:

• Have a PhD, or applicants in the final stages of their PhD will be accepted provided that the PhD will be completed (including viva) before the start date of the Fellowship. Confirmation of award of the PhD will be required before any Fellowship award is confirmed.
• Applicants should have no more than seven years of active full time postdoctoral experience at the time of application (discounting career breaks, but including teaching experience and/or time spent in industry).

• Be working outside the UK.
• Not hold UK citizenship.
• Be competent in oral and written English.
• Have a clearly defined and mutually-beneficial research proposal agreed with a UK host researcher.

Applicants should ensure that they meet all the eligibility requirements, which are explained in the scheme notes.

Duration and Value of Award

The International Fellowships offer support for two years and the award is offered at 80% FEC. Applicants may apply for research expenses of up to £12,000 and relocation costs of up to £8,000. Applicants will need to justify the level of research expenses and relocation costs requested in their application.

Applicants may also be eligible to receive Alumni funding following the tenure of their Fellowship to support networking activities with UK-based or international researchers.

To Apply: Click HERE

Postdocs in African Studies @Princeton

 

Application for Postdoctoral Research Associate, Program in African Studies @Princeton

The Program in African Studies (PAS) at Princeton University invites applications for Postdoctoral Research Associate or more senior research positions for the 2024-2025 academic year.  Up to two appointments will be made to exceptional recent PhDs in the humanities, social sciences, interdisciplinary environmental science or engineering, with a focus on African thought, art, media, activism, conservation, economics, urban and rural communities, post-colonialism, and other research related to the African continent and its diaspora.  Appointments at the Postdoctoral Research Associate rank will be for one year with the possibility of renewal for a second year based on performance and availability of funding.  The appointments will be made through the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS). Applicants must demonstrate outstanding scholarly achievement and excellence in teaching.  These positions are open only to scholars who earned a PhD after September 30, 2018 and who do not currently hold a tenure-track or permanent academic position. 

Responsibilities include teaching (one semester-long course per year) and active collaboration in research, discussions, and scholarly events within PAS and PIIRS.  In addition, the successful candidate may have the opportunity to advise students in their area of expertise or related areas.  When teaching, the successful candidate will carry a secondary teaching rank.  Any teaching role is contingent on sufficient course enrollment and prior approval from the Office of the Dean of the Faculty. 

In addition to salary and benefits, the program will provide a research fund in the amount of $3,000 per year and office space.  Position anticipated start date is 9/1/2024.  
Applicants must apply online at https://www.princeton.edu/acad-positions/position/33121.  The following application items are required and should be uploaded by the applicant: 

* Cover letter
* Curriculum vitae
* Dissertation abstract
* Writing sample: one chapter of the dissertation or one published article related to the dissertation topic
* Research proposal
* Two course proposals
* Details of prior courses taught and evaluation results if available
* Document confirming your completion of all requirements for the PhD degree
* Names and email addresses for three references.  References will be contacted only for those who advance to the short list of candidates.

For fullest consideration applicants should apply by February 1, 2024 11:59 (EST.  Due to the anticipated volume of applications, only final candidates will be contacted.  Further information about The Program in African Studies can be found at: http://piirs.princeton.edu/afs. 

Questions about the application process for this position may be directed to Fiona Romaine, fromaine@princeton.edu. 

This position is subject to the University's background check policy.  The work location for this position is in-person on campus at Princeton University.
Princeton University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Requisition No: D-24-PII-00006

On the Theft of British Museum Artefacts: My interview on CGTN today, Aug. 26, 2023

 In the wake of the massive theft of artifacts by staff of the British Museum, I was on CGTN live TV today for a chat on the implications for the restitution movement of this unfolding scandal that has seen the resignation of the BM Director Hartwig Fischer, and arrest of at least one staff member. 

Here's the live interview on YouTube: