Student Symposium 2000
Institutionalizing Cultures

On April 14, 2000, the 7th Annual CUNY Graduate Art History Student Symposium took place. Titled Institutionalizing Cultures, the symposium was designed to address problems and issues related to the exhibition and display of Pre-Columbian, African, Oceanic, and Native American art and was the first hosted by our department to concentrate on Non-Western themes. Papers were presented by graduate students from across the country. Participants and their papers included: Thomas Larose, Virginia Commonwealth University, "Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie: Complicating Imbalances," Chloé Georas, SUNY-Binghamton, "Museum in a Tank: Re-Imperializations at the Musée des Arts d'Afrique et d'Oceanie," Wendy Koenig, Ohio State University, "Africa Expands: African Diaspora Artists in the American Museum," Ruth Anne Phillips, CUNY-Graduate Center, "Framing the Inca Aesthetic," and Kinsey Katchka, Indiana University, "Exhibiting 'The Popular': Urban Cultures and Transnationalism in Postcolonial West Africa."

An intense debate between questions of theory and the pragmatics of practice took place in the discussion that followed the presentation of the papers. The symposium's respondents were Professor George A. Corbin of Lehman College and the Graduate Center and Dr. Susan Vogel, currently an independent filmmaker and formerly the director of the Museum of African Art, New York. The symposium was organized by students Angela Herren, Emily Rekow, and Jennifer Wagelie and was supported by the Art History Department and the Cultural Affairs Committee of the Doctoral Students Council.
--Jennifer Wagalie

Abstracts of symposium papers>>

Bios of symposium organizers>>