Queer Caucus for Art business

Statement from the Co-chairs

The Queer Caucus for Art has been hard at work ensuring a high LGBT profile at the next CAA annual meeting in Chicago. You’ll be hearing more about this in the next newsletter which will arrive in the winter before the meeting, but a few developments warrant a brief mention now. After we tell you all we’ve been doing, we’re going to be asking for your help. Our expanded Caucus agenda requires additional hands to guarantee success.

We have a Caucus sponsored show scheduled for CAA Chicago called “In the City of Big Shoulder Pads: The Queer Caucus for Art’s LGBT Chicago Show.” A call for entries will be coming soon. While we have secured space, we still need local help to coordinate and hang the show. If you’re in the Chicago area and are willing to help in this short term task, please email or call Erica Rand at erand@bates.edu or 207/782-0975 (that’s Eastern time for people who don’t know the area code). By this point you should have all received a copy of our newly published membership directory [which was mailed to paid-up members]. Many thanks to Jonathan Weinberg for this thankless task. Jonathan has finally decided that, after eons as the Caucus membership coordinator, he’d like to give up the post (we feared this day would come). We are consequently looking for someone to fill the job. It’s small, but one that requires an organized person. If you’re willing to help please let Jonathan Katz know at 415-648-6563 or Katzartfag@aol.com

The Queer Caucus is sponsoring a panel discussion in Chicago on the politics of queer-themed display in museums. If you are interested in being part of this panel discussion, kindly let Jonathan know. We still have a few open spaces on the panel. This year’s CAA will also see both a Caucus social reception and a business meeting in addition to the lunch time panel discussion and exhibit opening.

New this year will be a series of recognitions: some to praise and reward those who have helped our struggle for civil equity in the art world, some to censure those who have hindered it. In this issue of the newsletter, you will find a nominations form. Please fill it out with your recommendations for museums, individuals, institutions, universities, etc., worthy of either praise or blame and between now and the next newsletter we will compile your responses and generate a list of nominees for Caucus members to consider. Voting will take place at the business meeting in Chicago and the names of the winners will be widely distributed via press releases and a news conference -- and accompanied by a Caucus awards certificate suitable for framing. Please take a moment to make your nominees known to the Caucus membership by filling out the nominations form.

The Queer Caucus for art is finally on-line. Check out our new web site, courtesy of Ray Anne Lockard at the University of Pittsburgh. Ray Anne has been hard at work putting together a follow-up edition of our highly successful bibiliography of queer studies in the arts. If you have any citations you think are either obscure enough, or key enough, that they need be brought to Ray Anne’s attention, please email her at frickart+@pitt.edu before December 1st. Finally, our thanks to Sherman Clarke and Tee Corinne for their efforts in writing, compiling, printing and mailing this newsletter. We all owe you.

Erica and Jonathan

In the City of Big Shoulder Pads:
The Queer Caucus for Art’s
LGBT Chicago Show

We’re bringing an LGBT twist to the City of Big Shoulders with our QCA 2001 show: “In the City of Big Shoulder Pads” (not that shoulders need to be big or padded to rock our sexuality and gender worlds). It’s an open-theme show, and all Caucus members are eligible to participate -- another great reason to join if you haven’t already. We’re still nailing down a few details, so look for upcoming announcements with a complete call for entries.

There’s still time to get involved in planning and putting up the show. We need you. Please contact co-chair Erica Rand if you can help. (ER)

Want to see a show in Philadelphia, 2002?

One thing we’ve learned from producing Caucus shows over the past years is that when we wait to start until after our business meeting the previous February, we’re actually already behind. Lots of people are trying to secure spaces for shows that coincide with the CAA conference; many good sites that we can afford (free or cheap) are already gone by then.. Also, some caucus members have asked for shows with more focussed themes, such as “Troubling Customs” (1998). Those shows take time, too, since they involve getting people from various areas to collaborate on conceptualization, the calls, etc.

It would be great to get started on 2002 now. If you would be willing to start looking at some locations and thinking about the show, please get in touch with us. We need some people in the Philadelphia area to take the lead on finding a place, but you don’t need to be in that area to work on the concept, the call, etc. (ER)

Caucus Electronic Discussion List Launched!

Caucus-L, a non-moderated e-mail list, has been launched recently at the University of Pittsburgh by Ray Anne Lockard. The list has been created to allow Caucus members to notify each other of important events in a timely manner and to discuss professional concerns with each other. To sign-up, send a message to majordomo@list.pitt.edu, do not put a message in the subject line, and then type subscribe Caucus-L. To send mail to be distributed through the mailing list, simply send the mail you want to be distributed to Caucus-L@list.pitt.edu. (RAL)

Queer Caucus Now in Cyberspace!

The Caucus now has a web site! Written and designed by Ray Anne Lockard (University of Pittsburgh), it is available at the following URL: http://www.pitt.edu/~frickart/QCA

The site includes a brief history of the Caucus and a link to the mission statement at the Affiliated Societies page of the CAA web page. The site also includes: current officers with address information and a joint statement; past officers (a list only), Caucus Committees (with description and list of members), a link to CAA’s Guidelines for submission of program proposals, programs sponsored at CAA conferences, exhibitions held during CAA conferences, and a list of Caucus-sponsored Projects/Publications. The site will also include links to recent issues of the Caucus newsletter as well as related web sites: general (NGLTF, HRC, etc.), art sites (QAR, Queer Cultural Center, etc.), sites by individual artists, exhibitions on the web, queer studies programs (CLAGS, etc.), syllabae for courses in gay and lesbian art, related professional organizations and archives (the Gay and Lesbian Interests Round Table of ARLIS/NA, Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation, etc.).

There will also be an e-mail form allowing Caucus members to submit suggestions for changes and links. The author is striving to make the Caucus web site the most comprehensive collection of queer art information on the web! (RAL)

Other Caucus news and business

The next issue of the newsletter will include plans for Caucus activities during the annual CAA conference to be held in Chicago from February 28 to March 3, 2001. The January issue will also include the regular features like news of members, calendar, call for papers, and new publications. The editors are most grateful for contributions such as announcements of shows, lectures, performances and publications, as well as personalized overviews of activities in various cities.

Recent issues of the newsletter are also available on the web at http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/9783/glc/glcn.html The printed version is the official version of the newsletter, but the full content is on the web along with a membership form, a list of officers, and subscription information for CAUCUS-L (our just-launched electronic list).

A publisher of gay and lesbian titles has approached the newsletter editors with a proposal to include a brochure with the newsletter. The caucus officers have discussed this but are not enthusiastic about the idea. We also considered the sale of the mailing list. The caucus has not, so far, used the mailing list for other than caucus or caucus-related matters. Please let the co-chairs know if you have an opinion on either advertisements in the newsletter (or inserted in the newsletter) or the sale of the mailing list for non-caucus purposes. We will not do either until there has been discussion of these matters at the next business meeting.

Revision of the bylaws was discussed at last year’s business meeting in New York. The next issue of the newsletter (the pre-conference issue) will include the proposed revisions in preparation for the annual business meeting in Chicago.

The Archive of Gay and Lesbian Artists which grew out of Caucus discussions and which was established at Oberlin College in 1989 is not currently being expanded. See a report under “project updates.” A discussion of the renewal and/or expansion of this slide registry has been suggested for the business meeting in Chicago.