Greetings and salutations! We are honored and thrilled to be heading the Caucus helm for the next two years, and the first thing we’d like to do is to thank outgoing co-chairs Erica Rand and Jonathan Katz for their years of guidance, labor, and good cheer.
For those of you who didn’t make it to CAA in Philly this year, we’d like to introduce ourselves. Maura is an independent scholar and critic who is currently teaching at Tufts University. Jim is the chair of the art department at Queens College, CUNY, and also teaches at the CUNY Graduate Center, where he helped found the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS).
The annual business meeting of the Caucus at CAA this year covered a lot of ground, and it was exciting to see the variety of projects and concerns that members are willing to get started or continue. Here are the main projects we’ll be working on:
I. Bibliography. We decided it was time to reissue the Bibliography of Gay and Lesbian Art, which was last published in 1994. It needs to be updated, using the newsletter’s bibliographic citations that have been input through the years by Tee A. Corinne and Sherman Clarke. Volunteers are needed to help with this endeavor. Please contact Ray Anne Lockard if you can help in any way: Frick Fine Arts Library, U. of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260; H 412-648-2410; frickart@vms.cis.pitt.edu
II. 2003 Members’ Art Exhibit in NYC, to coincide with CAA. Noreen Dean Dresser has agreed to organize this show, which will be held at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center in NYC. If there are others interested in helping Noreen with this, please contact her at: 127 Ludlow St. #2C, NY, NY 10002; H 212-477-9060; deand@ibm.net
III. 2004 Members’ Art Exhibit in Seattle, to coincide with CAA. David Brown has agreed to organize this show. Is there anyone in Seattle, or the Northwest, that would be interested in helping David with this? If so, email him at: dbrown@mfa.org
IV. 2004 Queer Caucus Panel for CAA. Panel ideas for this are being discussed by James Smalls, Jim Sanders III, and Maura Reilly. If you have any ideas for a theme or an issue that is important at this moment in queer culture, please pass it on to the committee, via Maura’s email.
V. Website. Maura will be overseeing the creation of an extensive website for the Caucus. It is tentatively titled: queercaucusforart.org. If you have suggestions for another name, please let Maura know. Also, if there are graphic and/or web designers who can help us in any way with this, please email Maura at: maura.reilly@tufts.edu
VI. Local Fundraisers and Chapters. We would like to hold fundraising events in various cities throughout the country, starting with one in NYC in the fall. The idea is to have a get-together of local members and friends, with some kind of short arts-related program (artist slide talks, brief art-history spiels, group panels, or whatever seems relevant, interesting, and possible), which could charge a modest admission or pass the hat. We would love it if other members took the initiative to hold some in other cities. If you’re interested in hosting one, contact Maura at maura.reilly@tufts.edu
VII. 2004 Art History Conference in NYC. Jim is investigating the possibility of holding a 2-day conference on queer visual arts in Fall 2004, to be held at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York, with possible co-sponsorship from the CUNY Doctoral Program in art history, CLAGS, and others. The format and topics of such a gathering are still up for discussion. Anyone interested in serving on the organizing committee, please contact Jim at james_saslow@qc.edu
VIII. The Social Action Committee. Philly attendees agreed that we need to be more proactive in bringing issues that are relevant to LGBT concerns to the attention of the art world and the wider society. Since there are so many different issues, we decided that this committee will be divided into two groups. The first (facilitated by Jonathan Katz) will focus on issues of censorship and other concerns related to visual culture (e.g. the Thomas Eakins’ show coming to the Metropolitan this summer, and the museum’s censoring of his sexual ambiguities); the second (facilitated by Erica Rand) will concentrate on issues related to the intersection of visual culture and current politics (e.g. food bombs in Afghanistan, etc.). If you’d like to get involved in either (or both) of these committees, contact Jonathan at katzartfag@aol.com or Erica at erand@abacus.bates.edu
While these are the most important ideas to come out of the Philly meeting, we are always eager to hear from members about other concerns, suggestions, and missions the Caucus might choose to accept. And remember: This is a volunteer organization. All of these great ideas can only happen if we have people to do them. Please think about what matters most to you, and what you can do to help out. Keep those calls and letters coming!
Thanks,
Maura and Jim
maura.reilly@tufts.edu; W 617-627-5384
james_saslow@qc.edu; H 212-873-3096