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Annotated Timeline

 

2011

  • May–June: With Linda Downs as executive director, CAA is awarded its first grant from the Getty Foundation “to support travel and accommodation expenses for 20 international art historians (including artists who teach art history and art historians who are museum curators) from countries not well represented in CAA membership.”
  • Historically, the majority of international registrants to CAA’s Annual Conferences have come from North America, the United Kingdom, and Western European countries. At CAA’s 2011 Annual Conference, the year before the CAA-Getty program began, 20 attendees came from 18 underrepresented countries. By 2021, 163 people attended from 45 underrepresented countries.

 

2012

  • Twenty scholars attend the first year of the CAA-Getty program, convened at CAA’s Centennial Conference in Los Angeles.
  • Countries include Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Iraq, Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Ukraine. 
  • Members of CAA’s International Committee (Jennifer Milam, chair) and the National Committee for the History of Art (NCHA; Marc Gotlieb, president) serve as hosts for CAA-Getty participants. An essential feature of the program ever since, the role of the hosts is to optimize the participants’ visits by introducing them to scholars in their fields, recommending conference sessions and other activities at the Annual Conference, and frequently arranging visits to museums and private collections.
  • Then called the CAA International Travel Grant, the program includes two formal meetings—an introductory meet-and-greet on the first morning of the conference and a wrap-up discussion at end of the conference—along with informal gatherings among participants and hosts. During the wrap-up meeting, Federico Freschi, a participant from South Africa, encourages CAA to add a preconference event in future years to provide an opportunity for international colleagues to meet one another and share scholarly interests.
  • As early as this first conference, participants raise the possibility of using computer technology (e.g., Skype) to sustain discussions between conferences. It took until the sixth conference to begin online programs, using CAA Commons.
  • Immediately following the conference, most participants accept the invitation by the Clark Art Institute to visit Williamstown, MA, and to meet with scholars at the museum’s Research and Academic Program.

 

 

Federico Freschi, from South Africa, speaks at a meeting of the first gathering of the CAA-Getty International Program.

 

 

Meeting different colleagues from all over the world was a great experience. . . . I learned how possible and great it is to work with others although we have different research fields. I am convinced that it is very important to work in collaboration with other researchers.

—Didier Houenoude (Benin)

When I participated in the first year of the CAA-Getty International Program, I was able to meet researchers from many countries other than mine, with different cultural and institutional contexts. The discussions we had throughout the week were deeply enriching. Brazil is a large country, but very isolated, including by language, since we speak Portuguese and not Spanish, as in the rest of Latin America. I therefore didn’t know anything about the lives of researchers and historians from Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and even other parts of South America.

—Rosa Gabriella de Castro Gonçalves (Brazil)

 

 

 

2013

  • Twenty international scholars attend the Annual Conference in New York City in February, followed by a visit to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA.
  • Ten countries are represented for the first time: Argentina, Bangladesh, China, Ecuador, Haiti, Iceland, Serbia, Slovakia, South Korea, and Uganda.
  • With Ann Albritton as chair of the International Committee, two mainstays of subsequent years are introduced in this second year of the program: a welcome dinner on Monday evening and a preconference colloquium on the day prior to the conference.
  • A half-day preconference gathering includes short presentations by participants about the art history programs in their countries and their particular research interests. Even such brief introductions, as Karen von Veh, a participant from South Africa, wrote, “allowed each of us to immediately identify people with whom we could network and set up reciprocal projects or research exchanges between our institutions.”
  • These talks are followed by a panel discussion, “Issues in Global Art History,” moderated by Marc Gotlieb (president of NCHA) and including Elizabeth Cropper (Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art), Gail Feigenbaum (Getty Research Institute and CAA board member), Michael Ann Holly (Research and Academic Program, Clark Art Institute), and Joan Weinstein (Getty Foundation).
  • A midweek luncheon includes guest speaker James Elkins from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, who leads a discussion about similarities and differences in the practice of art history in participants’ countries.

 

 

“Art Theory,” Hlynur Helgason, University of Iceland, presented at a 2013 preconference meeting of participants (photograph provided by Hlynur Helgason)

 

 

The CAA-Getty International Program is all about people. The ability to meet so many interesting people from various traditions, backgrounds, academic systems, practices, and visions: this was the best experience. . . . Through discussions with them about such things as the position, future, and purpose of art history, I have discovered different perspectives and approaches. It is especially interesting for people like me, with a very traditional Eurocentric approach to the discipline of art history, to exchange ideas with scholars from around the world.

—Marina Vicelja-Matijasic (Croatia)

My participation in the CAA-Getty International Program has intensified my interest in the impact of globalization on the discipline of art history. What seemed to be a solitary interest in a burgeoning field turned out to be a common concern cutting across nationalities and even races.

—Parul Dave Mukherji (India)

 

 

 

2014

  • Twenty scholars attend the CAA Annual Conference in Chicago, followed by a visit to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA.
  • Eight countries are represented for the first time: Cameroon, Chile, Cuba, Egypt, Estonia, Ghana, Malaysia, and Portugal.
  • Five graduate students from local universities join CAA-member hosts to assist international participants in getting around Chicago to visit museums, galleries, and special collections.
  • The first full-day preconference colloquium features short presentations by CAA-Getty scholars organized around three themes determined by the participants: Art and National Identity, National Practices in Art History, and International Perspectives on Contemporary Art. The day concludes with a discussion led by Frederick M. (Rick) Asher (University of Minnesota) that includes Mark Cheetham (University of Toronto), Jennifer Milam (University of Sydney), Steven Nelson (then at UCLA, now at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art), and Joanne Pillsbury (Metropolitan Museum of Art).
  • During the conference week, CAA’s International Committee sponsors a discussion, “Topics in Global Art History: Historical Connections,” featuring two alumni of the program, Trinidad Pérez (Ecuador) and Shao-Chien Tseng (Taiwan).

 

 

 

“Islamic and Latin American Countries, Transcultural Connections,” Fernando Luis Martínez Nespral, School of Architecture, Design, and Urbanism, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, presented at the 2014 preconference colloquium (photograph provided by Fernando Luis Martínez Nespral)

 

 

The preconference shows how the phenomenon of globalization has created a new art world in which cultures are no longer distant from one another, people and places are no longer as separate as they once were. . . . The real satisfaction of this event was hybridity, or the mixing of the traditions of different cultures to create new blends and new connections.

—Hugues Heuman Tchana (Cameroon)

Thanks to two CAA-Getty travel grants (2014 and 2017), I was privileged to experience what I consider to be one of the most exciting global events in transforming the world of art history, theory, and practice. Perhaps the most enticing element of these experiences is the acknowledgment of methodological and thematic changes in the new art history and the awareness of the need to introduce these changes into my research and teaching. . . . Finally, and perhaps most importantly, being part of these CAA programs in times of political, social, and cultural turmoil in the US reassured me of the crucial significance and even therapeutic potential of humanistic scholarship for societies in crisis.

—Laris Borić (Croatia)

 

 

2015

  • Fifteen international scholars attend the CAA Annual Conference in New York City, followed by a visit to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA. The reduced number facilitates a more manageable program for the preconference colloquium.
  • One country, Russia, is represented for the first time. Other countries have developed communities of alumni, notably Croatia, Hungary, and South Africa.
  • In addition to members of CAA’s International Committee and NCHA, hosts include representatives from several of CAA’s Affiliated Societies, including the American Council for Southern Asian Art (ACSAA), the Association for Latin American Art (ALAA), the Society of Historians of East European, Eurasian, and Russian Art and Architecture (SHERA), and the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA), increasing opportunities for professional networking within specialties.
  • The format of the preconference colloquium becomes the model for the next several years: four thematic sessions featuring ten-minute presentations by international participants, followed by extended Q&As. Rosemary O’Neill, chair of CAA’s International Committee, and Marc Gotlieb, president of NCHA, moderate open discussions.
  • CAA’s International Committee organizes a roundtable discussion for CAA-Getty alumni and open to all conference attendees, commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the exhibition Magiciens de la terre, held in 1989 at the Centre Georges Pompidou and organized by Jean-Hubert Martin, who took part in the roundtable. The event is an important first step toward including alumni directly in conference activities. Online technology is used for the first time when alumna Parul Dave Mukherji presents from India via Skype.

 

“Infinite Social Landscape: The Transformative Moments of Chinese Contemporary Art on the Global Stage,” Shao Yiyang, School of Humanities, Central Academy of Fine Art, China, presented at the 2015 preconference colloquium (slide photograph provided by Shao Yiyang). The slide includes photographs of installations by Anthony Gormley (2003) and Ai Weiwei (2010) (artworks © Anthony Gormley and © Ai Weiwei, both published under fair use).

 

 

The topics were as diverse as the participants themselves, but the questions that lay at the heart of the papers were closely related. All the participants were interested in the questions of the “internationalization” of art history, and it was a wonderful experience to be able to discuss these issues with colleagues from all over the world.

—Nóra Veszprémi (Hungary/UK)

When I joined the other CAA-Getty international scholars in February 2015 at the preconference discussion and, over the next few days, dove into the multitude of sessions and events at the CAA Annual Conference, the reality surpassed all my expectations. My professional network, which until then included scholars mostly from Eastern and some from Western Europe, expanded exponentially to global dimensions. I found myself in exchanges and discussions with scholars from Africa, Asia, and South and North America. All this was revealing and highly thought-provoking. The door in the post-Soviet/Euro “room” in which I had spent my previous scholarly life was opened, and I discovered multiple new dimensions just across the threshold. I stepped through the entrance then and have keep moving forward. . . . These global connections are horizontal rather than hierarchical, situational rather than permanent, fragile rather than robust; but they are crucial for overcoming the present crisis of fragmentation that we are experiencing both locally and globally. . . . The commonality and solidarity that I experience in the CAA-Getty community allows me to envision a better future for our discipline.

—Nazar Kozak (Ukraine)

 

 

2016

  • Fifteen international scholars attend the Annual Conference in Washington DC, followed by a visit to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA.
  • Countries represented for the first time include Iran, Peru, Turkey, and Vietnam.
  • Beginning this year, the grant application includes a question about global themes the applicant would be interested in discussing at the preconference colloquium. The answers help the jury select a group of participants with common scholarly interests and also help determine groupings for the preconference sessions.
  • In addition to the preconference, this year includes a conference session organized by CAA’s International Committee, chaired by Rosemary O’Neill, which features papers by four program alumni: Daria Kostina (Russia), Nazar Kozak (Ukraine), Ana Mannarino (Brazil), and Márton Orosz (Hungary).
  • Other alumni organize sessions on their own, including four scholars who present research from a long-term project they initiated after meeting at CAA: Judy Peter and Karen von Veh, (both from South Africa), Richard Gregor (Slovakia), and Cristian Nae (Romania) discuss artistic affinities among countries in Eastern Europe and Southern Africa (thus their acronym, EESA).
  • Toward the end of the conference, CAA-Getty participants meet with Rebecca Brown, editor of Art Journal, Kirk Ambrose, editor of The Art Bulletin, and Gail Feigenbaum of the Getty Research Institute to learn about publishing art history in the United States and opportunities for residencies at research institutes.

 

“Early Modern Architecture: Regional Approach vs. National History,” Lev Maciel, National Research University, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia, presented at the 2016 preconference colloquium (photograph provided by Lev Maciel).

 

 

The [EESA] roundtable offered me an absolutely new perspective to study and understand the contemporary artistic movements in Eastern Europe. . . . I hadn’t realized the hard intention of art historians to get free from the permanent comparison to European developments.

—Ildikó Gericsné Fehér (Hungary)

For me, the CAA-Getty International Program has had a significant impact on my career and life. The program provided me an opportunity for broader discussions around methodologies and approaches to building a rich, sophisticated, cross-regional and archival history of international art history. Participating in the project helped me better understand Vietnamese art in the context of world art, strengthen my research, and improve my lectures and writing on Vietnamese art.

—Bùi Thị Thanh Mai (Vietnam)

 

 

2017

  • At the suggestion of Deborah Marrow, then director of the Getty Foundation, CAA devotes the sixth year of the program to a reunion of previous program alumni with the purpose of solidifying relationships among them and between the group and CAA. Twenty alumni present papers during the Annual Conference in New York City.
  • Two landmark activities for the program are introduced: online discussions, held during the spring and summer, open to all alumni to explore international topics and determine themes for the following year’s program; and conference sessions organized and presented by alumni, titled Global Conversations.
  • Between October and February, participating alumni develop their papers via email in consultation with four NCHA members, who also serve as moderators for the sessions. These were the first Global Conversations sessions, which have been a presence at CAA conferences ever since.
  • A wrap-up meeting at the end of the conference provides an opportunity for alumni to analyze the accomplishments of the program to date and to imagine ways forward. Two key ideas are proposed: to bring a small number of alumni back each year to serve as advisors/moderators for new scholars entering the program; and to provide an annual opportunity for CAA-Getty scholars to present their work at the conference, in addition to the preconference colloquium.
  • After the conference, the papers are edited and posted on CAA’s website.

 

 

“Aby Warburg and the Boundaries of Art History,” Rosa Gabriella de Castro Gonçalves, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil, presented at a 2017 Global Conversations reunion session (slide photograph provided by Rosa Gabriella de Castro Gonçalves). The slide includes a photograph, “Aby Warburg with an unidentified Hopi dancer, Arizona, May 1896” (photograph in the public domain, provided by Warburg Institute Archive, London).

 

 

The Global Conversations sessions at the conference in New York were particularly beneficial to me due to the extensive debates on important issues such as educational systems, university curricula, exhibition strategies, and institutional structures for art as practiced in the United States and around the world. I also learned how both American and international art historians, philosophers of culture, and museum curators view the current state of the art historical discipline, and which methodologies are considered most useful and relevant for research in the field. . . . The sustained alumni network of the CAA-Getty International Program, including the American hosts, has supported my professional development even as it stimulates transnational cooperation and research projects for the future.

—Irena Kossowska (Poland)

I think having a reunion of past grant recipients was a fantastic idea. My re-interaction with the conference indicated clearly how my own research and academic work has flourished since 2014 in a manner that has not been made evident in other contexts.

—Portia Malatjie (South Africa)

 

 

2018

  • Embracing the proposal by alumni in 2017, CAA invites five alumni to join 15 new scholars at the Annual Conference in Los Angeles. Creating a model for subsequent years, the alumni provide continuity and leadership to new scholars in the exploration of international issues in the field.
  • One country, Thailand, is represented for the first time.
  • Once again relying on CAA’s online platform, all alumni are invited to discuss topics for the following year’s Global Conversations session. Arriving at the theme of Art and Mobility, a jury selects five alumni—Cezar Bartholomeu (Brazil), Parul Pandya Dhar (India), Ildikó Gericsné Fehér (Hungary), Peju Layiwola (Nigeria), and Nomusa Makhubu (South Africa)—who organize a Global Conversations session titled “Border Crossings: The Migration of Art, People, and Ideas.” These alumni also serve as advisors and moderators for the 2018 preconference colloquium.
  • The preconference colloquium is held at the Getty Center. Having worked on their preconference papers via email with their alumni advisors, the international participants present their work in five groups according to the following themes: Postcolonial and Eurocentric Legacies; Global Trends in Museum Research and Exhibition; Interdisciplinary and Transnational Methodologies; Cultural Identity, Politics, and the Powers of Art; and Considering an International Art History Curriculum.
  • A new event is added to the program this year: a coffee reception cosponsored by CAA and NCHA to provide an additional opportunity for the international scholars to meet members of NCHA and CAA’s International Committee.

 

 

“The Mediation of the Object: Iconographies of Travel across the Indian Ocean,” Parul Pandya Dhar, University of Delhi, presented at the 2018 Global Conversations alumni session (slide photograph provided by Parul Pandya Dhar). The slide includes works from fifth-century Ajanta, India, and ninth-century Indonesia (artworks in the public domain).

 

 

Nothing is better for creating new and valuable experiences, and for exploring and sharing ideas, than a wide discussion platform such as the CAA-Getty International Program, which helps to tie different cultures together. Besides being honored to be part of this exceptional community, the experience helped me foster a closer look at my area of specialization from a wider perspective: across spatial borders, time, media, and cross-cultural influences.

—Markéta Hánová (Czech Republic)

My former professor from Poland, Piotr Piotrowski, spoke in his books and papers about a horizontal art history, a need to create a decolonial, nonhierarchical, transnational, transcultural, and inter-epistemic dialogue among scholars and within the narratives of art history. I personally believe that the CAA-Getty International Program is the best realization of this goal. The meetings that are generated by the program are based on a true exploration of ideas, conducted with respect and friendship among scholars from all over the world. The intense exchanges that result produce not only an understanding of different points of view, but also the discovery that, in spite of many differences, we are very close to each other, our art historical questions are sometimes surprisingly similar, and we support the very same ideals of scholarly collaboration without borders.

—Katarzyna Cytlak (Poland, then working in Argentina)

 

 

2019

  • Five alumni and 15 new participants attend the Annual Conference in New York, followed by a visit to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA.
  • Participants in this year’s program include scholars from Albania and Greece for the first time.
  • Immediately following the 2018 conference, all alumni are invited to discuss topics for the following year’s Global Conversations session. Now connecting via the online forum Humanities Commons, the group uses the topic of the 2018 alumni session about migration to begin its discussion, exploring different aspects of art and mobility. After a call for proposals, a jury selects five alumni, who organize a Global Conversations session titled “Creative Pedagogy: Mapping the In Between Across Cultures.” These alumni—Sarena Abdullah (Malaysia), Katarzyna Cytlak (Argentina), Nadhra Shahbaz Khan (Pakistan), Nazar Kozak (Ukraine), and Chen Liu (China)—also serve as advisors and moderators for the 2019 preconference colloquium.
  • The 2019 preconference colloquium is held on the day preceding the conference at Parsons School of Design—The New School. New participants had worked with alumni on their presentations for two months prior to the event, honing the focus of their talks to the common themes: Examples of Defining or Constructing Aesthetics in Chinese and Japanese Art; Orientalism/Occidentalism; How Do We Approach Religious Art?; The Body, Identity, and Artistic Agency; and Politics and Art in Dark Times.

 

 

“Orientalism and Female Portraiture in Nineteenth-Century Painting in Romania,” Oana Maria Nicuță Nae, George Enescu National University of Arts, Iasi, Romania, presented at the 2019 preconference colloquium (slide photograph provided by Oana Maria Nicuță Nae). The slide includes photographs of two paintings by Theodor Aman (1873 and 1862) (artworks in the public domain).

 

 

In my academic experience, I have never ever come across a selection process which is so transparent and democratic. . . . Listening to all the preconference sessions by other participants opened up a whole new world of common issues faced by all of us on a daily basis, irrespective of the countries. But it also taught me how to overcome the challenges.

—Swati Chemburkar (India)

I thought the preconference discussion was excellent. I really appreciated having THREE expert pairs of eyes look over my paper (what a treat!) and offer feedback. The discussion also made participants feel part of the program, working together towards a common goal. . . . What I liked best was the opportunity to hear a total of fifteen short well thought-through papers on subjects I would not necessarily select to attend at a conference.

—Richard Bullen (New Zealand)

 

 

 

2020

  • Fifteen new participants and five alumni attend the Annual Conference, held in Chicago.
  • Bolivia, Ivory Coast, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore are represented for the first time, bringing the total number of countries represented by CAA-Getty participants to 50.
  • Beginning just after the 2019 conference, interested alumni join an online discussion to identify a topic for the Global Conversations alumni session in 2020. The discussion is led by Nomusa Makhubu, Pearlie Rose Baluyut (CAA Board of Directors), and Janet Landay, this year joined by Nazar Kozak (moderator of the 2019 alumni session and a member of CAA’s International Committee). Alumni address “the politics of seeing in art history, understood as a power struggle of interpretations conducted from divergent perspectives: past and present, right and left, neo-imperialist and decolonial, industrialist and environmentalist, as well as all the spectrum in between these and similar binaries.”
  • A jury selects Abiodun Akande (Nigeria), Pedith Chan (Hong Kong), Iro Katsaridou (Greece), Nóra Veszprémi (Hungary/UK), and Cristian Nae (Romania), who will also serve as moderator. Their Global Conversations session is titled “Things Aren’t Always as They Seem: Art History and the Politics of Vision.” (Due to illness, Cristian Nae is unable to attend the conference; his role as moderator of the preconference is filled by Katarzyna Cytlak, an alumna from 2018; his role as moderator of the alumni session is filled by Nazar Kozak, an alumnus who began with the program in 2015.)
  • In February 2020 the preconference colloquium, held at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, includes five sessions: “New Perspectives in Indigenous Arts: Multilayered Modernities across Time and Place,” The Politics of Cultural Heritage,” “Expanding the Subjects of Art Historical Study,” “Global Exiles and Connections,” and “Critical Pedagogy in Art and Design.”
  • Each session is moderated by an alumna or alumnus of the program and includes three papers by new participants. The groups have been working together since the previous October to identify overarching similarities and differences among their papers. Pearlie Rose Baluyut and Janet Landay edit the papers in advance (as they did the previous year). For the first time, papers are circulated prior to the preconference to CAA-Getty program participants and the hosts.

 

 

“To Give Shape to Time: Contemporary Perspectives on Prehispanic Ceramics,” Giuliana Vidarte, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Lima, Peru, presented at the 2020 preconference colloquium (slide photograph provided by Giuliana Vidarte). The slide includes a photograph of three 2019 works by Lastenia Canayo (artworks © Lastenia Canayo, published under fair use).

 

 

Attending the CAA conference was hugely stimulating, and I left feeling excited about the future of art history. It reminded me of the strengths of deep art historical research in providing a more complex and nuanced understanding of art and society.

—Julia Waite (New Zealand)

Participating in the CAA-Getty preconference colloquium gave me many ideas on how to connect art histories between unlikely contexts. For example, I identified similar interests regarding issues of coloniality, indigenous art, and geopolitics in presentations from Nigeria, New Zealand, and South Africa. . . . I am one of not more than a handful of art historians in Bolivia, and I have almost no opportunities to exchange ideas about art, research, and education. For this reason, I cannot emphasize enough the impact that attending these meetings can have for colleagues in similar situations around the world.

—Valeria Paz Moscoso (Bolivia)

 

 

2021

  • Originally planned as an in-person event, but revised because of the COVID-19 pandemic, an online program with 19 alumni participants takes place between June 2020 and the first virtual CAA Annual Conference in February 2021.
  • The alumni form five groups organized around themes, each with three or four participants and an NCHA member serving as an advisor/moderator. The themes are The Migration of Art and Ideas; The Climate Crisis, Pandemics, Art, and Scholarship; The Challenges, Disobediences, and Resistances of Art in the Transnational Imagination; Disruptive Pedagogies and the Legacies of Imperialism and Nationalism; and A Multiplicity of Perspectives at the Museum of Modern Art (in conversation with curators at MoMA).
  • Beginning in June 2020, the groups meet every six weeks to listen to and discuss informal presentations by the alumni. By September, guest scholars are invited to join these online meetings to contribute additional perspectives on the topics.
  • By December, alumni participants finalize their presentations, NCHA participants write their discussant remarks, and the sessions are videotaped and captioned for presentation at the conference.
  • At the February virtual conference, the five Global Conversations sessions are among the 40 most-viewed presentations out of 327 prerecorded programs. The live Q&A sessions are among the 15 best attended out of 342.

 

“Anthropocene and Capitalocene: Soil, Land, and Territory in the Artistic Research of Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan,” Cristian Nae, George Enescu National University of Arts, Iasi, Romania, presented at a 2021 Global Conversations session (slide photograph provided by Cristian Nae). The slide includes a photograph of an installation by Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan, The Last Land, 2018 (artwork © Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan, published under fair use).

 

 

Although Zoom meetings can't replace face-to-face meetings, the 2021 International Program was an incredibly challenging and enriching experience. One of the things I most appreciated was sharing my research with renowned scholars from all over the world and having the opportunity to discuss my ideas throughout this past year. . . . I learnt so much from all the participants. Their commitment and warmth have shone through during these uncertain and trying times. Thank you all for being an inspiring network for collective thinking and action.

—Daniela Lucena (Argentina)

The great challenge for the CAA-Getty International Program now is not only to share new information and ideas about different places in the world, but also to figure out how to evaluate all the cross-cultural connections we have made over the past ten years. It's not easy to step outside the limits of our own perspectives—we could call them local databases and relationships. But our experiences of the last year show it can paradoxically be done even better than in previous years. We already know that the COVID crisis is accelerating a good deal of global awareness; this year's CAA-Getty program, which included multiple online discussions among scholars from around the world, showed how we can accelerate our global scholarly understanding. 

—Richard Gregor (Slovakia)

 

 

2011

  • May–June: With Linda Downs as executive director, CAA is awarded its first grant from the Getty Foundation “to support travel and accommodation expenses for 20 international art historians (including artists who teach art history and art historians who are museum curators) from countries not well represented in CAA membership.” Subsequently, annual grants are provided by the Foundation each year to sustain the program.
  • Historically, the majority of international registrants to CAA’s Annual Conferences have come from North America, the United Kingdom, and Western European countries. At CAA’s 2011 Annual Conference, the year before the CAA-Getty program began, 20 attendees came from 18 underrepresented countries. By 2021, 163 people attended from 45 underrepresented countries.

 

2012

  • Twenty scholars attend the first year of the CAA-Getty program, convened at CAA’s Centennial Conference in Los Angeles.
  • Countries include Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Iraq, Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Ukraine. 
  • Members of CAA’s International Committee (Jennifer Milam, chair) and the National Committee for the History of Art (NCHA, Marc Gotlieb, president) serve as hosts for CAA-Getty participants. An essential feature of the program ever since, the role of the hosts is to optimize the participants’ visits by introducing them to scholars in their fields, recommending conference sessions and other activities at the Annual Conference, and frequently arranging visits to museums and private collections.
  • Then called the CAA International Travel Grant, the program includes two formal meetings—an introductory meet-and-greet on the first morning of the conference and a wrap-up discussion at end of the conference—along with informal gatherings among participants and hosts. During the wrap-up meeting, Federico Freschi, a participant from South Africa, encourages CAA to add a preconference event in future years to provide an opportunity for international colleagues to meet one another and share scholarly interests.
  • As early as this first conference, participants raise the possibility of using computer technology (e.g., Skype) to sustain discussions between conferences. It took until the sixth conference to begin online programs, using CAA Commons.
  • Immediately following the conference, most participants accept the invitation by the Clark Art Institute to visit Williamstown, MA, and to meet with scholars at the museum’s Research and Academic Program.

 

 

Federico Freschi, from South Africa, speaks at a meeting of the first gathering of the CAA-Getty International Program.

 

 

Meeting different colleagues from all over the world was a great experience. . . . I learned how possible and great it is to work with others although we have different research fields. I am convinced that it is very important to work in collaboration with other researchers.

—Didier Houenoude (Benin)

When I participated in the first year of the CAA-Getty International Program, I was able to meet researchers from many countries other than mine, with different cultural and institutional contexts. The discussions we had throughout the week were deeply enriching. Brazil is a large country, but very isolated, including by language, since we speak Portuguese and not Spanish, as in the rest of Latin America. I therefore didn’t know anything about the lives of researchers and historians from Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and even other parts of South America.

—Rosa Gabriella de Castro Gonçalves (Brazil)

 

 

 

2013

  • Twenty international scholars attend the Annual Conference in New York City in February, followed by a visit to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA.
  • Ten countries are represented for the first time: Argentina, Bangladesh, China, Ecuador, Haiti, Iceland, Korea, Serbia, Slovakia, and Uganda.
  • With Ann Albritton as chair of the International Committee, two mainstays of subsequent years are introduced in this second year of the program: a welcome dinner on Monday evening and a preconference colloquium on the day prior to the conference.
  • A half-day preconference gathering includes short presentations by participants about the art history programs in their countries and their particular research interests. Even such brief introductions, as Karen von Veh, a participant from South Africa, wrote, “allowed each of us to immediately identify people with whom we could network and set up reciprocal projects or research exchanges between our institutions.”
  • These talks are followed by a panel discussion, “Issues in Global Art History,” moderated by Marc Gotlieb (president of NCHA) and including Elizabeth Cropper (Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art), Gail Feigenbaum (Getty Research Institute and CAA board member), Michael Ann Holly (Research and Academic Program, Clark Art Institute), and Joan Weinstein (Getty Foundation).
  • A midweek luncheon includes guest speaker James Elkins from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, who leads a discussion about similarities and differences in the practice of art history in participants’ countries.

 

 

“Art Theory,” Hlynur Helgason, University of Iceland, presented at a 2013 preconference meeting of participants (photograph provided by Hlynur Helgason)

 

 

The CAA-Getty International Program is all about people. The ability to meet so many interesting people from various traditions, backgrounds, academic systems, practices, and visions: this was the best experience. . . . Through discussions with them about such things as the position, future, and purpose of art history, I have discovered different perspectives and approaches. It is especially interesting for people like me, with a very traditional Eurocentric approach to the discipline of art history, to exchange ideas with scholars from around the world.

—Marina Vicelja-Matijasic (Croatia)

My participation in the CAA-Getty International Program has intensified my interest in the impact of globalization on the discipline of art history. What seemed to be a solitary interest in a burgeoning field turned out to be a common concern cutting across nationalities and even races.

—Parul Dave Mukherji (India)

 

 

 

2014

  • Twenty scholars attend the CAA Annual Conference in Chicago, followed by a visit to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA.
  • Eight countries are represented for the first time: Cameroon, Chile, Cuba, Egypt, Estonia, Ghana, Malaysia, and Portugal.
  • Five graduate students from local universities join CAA-member hosts to assist international participants in getting around Chicago to visit museums, galleries, and special collections.
  • The first full-day preconference colloquium features short presentations by CAA-Getty scholars organized around three themes determined by the participants: Art and National Identity, National Practices in Art History, and International Perspectives on Contemporary Art. The day concludes with a discussion led by Frederick M. (Rick) Asher (University of Minnesota) that includes Mark Cheetham (University of Toronto), Jennifer Milam (University of Sydney), Steven Nelson (then at UCLA, now at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art), and Joanne Pillsbury (Metropolitan Museum of Art).
  • During the conference week, CAA’s International Committee sponsors a discussion, “Topics in Global Art History: Historical Connections,” featuring two alumni of the program, Trinidad Pérez (Ecuador) and Shao-Chien Tseng (Taiwan).

 

 

 

"Islamic and Latin American Countries, Transcultural Connections," Fernando Luis Martínez Nespral, School of Architecture, Design, and Urbanism, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, presented at the 2014 preconference colloquium (photograph provided by Fernando Luis Martínez Nespral)

 

 

The preconference shows how the phenomenon of globalization has created a new art world in which cultures are no longer distant from one another, people and places are no longer as separate as they once were. . . . The real satisfaction of this event was hybridity, or the mixing of the traditions of different cultures to create new blends and new connections.

—Hugues Heuman Tchana (Cameroon)

Thanks to two CAA-Getty travel grants (2014 and 2017), I was privileged to experience what I consider to be one of the most exciting global events in transforming the world of art history, theory, and practice. Perhaps the most enticing element of these experiences is the acknowledgment of methodological and thematic changes in the new art history and the awareness of the need to introduce these changes into my research and teaching. . . . Finally, and perhaps most importantly, being part of these CAA programs in times of political, social, and cultural turmoil in the US reassured me of the crucial significance and even therapeutic potential of humanistic scholarship for societies in crisis.

—Laris Borić (Croatia)

 

 

2015

  • Fifteen international scholars attend the CAA Annual Conference in New York City, followed by a visit to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA. The reduced number facilitates a more manageable program for the preconference colloquium.
  • One country, Russia, is represented for the first time. Other countries have developed communities of alumni, notably Croatia, Hungary, and South Africa.
  • In addition to members of CAA’s International Committee and NCHA, hosts include representatives from several of CAA’s Affiliated Societies, including the American Council for Southern Asian Art (ACSAA), the Association for Latin American Art (ALAA), the Society of Historians of Eastern European, Eurasian, and Russian Art and Architecture (SHERA), and the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA), increasing opportunities for professional networking within specialties.
  • The format of the preconference colloquium becomes the model for the next several years: four thematic sessions featuring ten-minute presentations by international participants, followed by extended Q&As. Rosemary O’Neill, chair of CAA’s International Committee, and Marc Gotlieb, president of NCHA, moderate open discussions.
  • CAA’s International Committee organizes a roundtable discussion for CAA-Getty alumni and open to all conference attendees, commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the exhibition Magiciens de la terre, held in 1989 at the Centre Georges Pompidou and organized by Jean-Hubert Martin, who took part in the roundtable. The event is an important first step toward including alumni directly in conference activities. Online technology is used for the first time when alumna Parul Dave Mukherji presents from India via Skype.

 

“Infinite Social Landscape: The Transformative Moments of Chinese Contemporary Art on the Global Stage,” Shao Yiyang, School of Humanities, Central Academy of Fine Art, China, presented at the 2015 preconference colloquium (slide photograph provided by Shao Yiyang). The slide includes photographs of installations by Anthony Gormley (2003) and Ai Weiwei (2010) (artworks © Anthony Gormley and © Ai Weiwei, both published under fair use).

 

 

The topics were as diverse as the participants themselves, but the questions that lay at the heart of the papers were closely related. All the participants were interested in the questions of the “internationalization” of art history, and it was a wonderful experience to be able to discuss these issues with colleagues from all over the world.

—Nóra Veszprémi (Hungary)

When I joined the other CAA-Getty international scholars in February 2015 at the preconference discussion and, over the next few days, dove into the multitude of sessions and events at the CAA Annual Conference, the reality surpassed all my expectations. My professional network, which until then included scholars mostly from Eastern and some from Western Europe, expanded exponentially to global dimensions. I found myself in exchanges and discussions with scholars from Africa, Asia, and South and North America. All this was revealing and highly thought provoking. The door in the post-Soviet/Euro “room” in which I had spent my previous scholarly life was opened, and I discovered multiple new dimensions just across the threshold. I stepped through the entrance then and have kept moving forward. . . . These global connections are horizontal rather than hierarchical, situational rather than permanent, fragile rather than robust; but they are crucial for overcoming the present crisis of fragmentation that we are experiencing both locally and globally. . . . The commonality and solidarity that I experience in the CAA-Getty community allows me to envision a better future for our discipline.

—Nazar Kozak (Ukraine)

 

 

2016

  • Fifteen international scholars attend the Annual Conference in Washington, DC, followed by a visit to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA.
  • Countries represented for the first time include Iran, Peru, Turkey, and Vietnam.
  • Beginning this year, the grant application includes a question about global themes the applicant would be interested in discussing at the preconference colloquium. The answers help the jury select a group of participants with common scholarly interests and also help determine groupings for the preconference sessions.
  • In addition to the preconference, this year includes a conference session organized by CAA’s International Committee, chaired by Rosemary O’Neill, which features papers by four program alumni: Daria Kostina (Russia), Nazar Kozak (Ukraine), Ana Mannarino (Brazil), and Márton Orosz (Hungary).
  • Other alumni organize sessions on their own, including four scholars who present research from a long-term project they initiated after meeting at CAA: Judy Peter and Karen von Veh (both from South Africa), Richard Gregor (Slovakia), and Cristian Nae (Romania) discuss artistic affinities among countries in Eastern Europe and Southern Africa (thus their acronym, EESA).
  • Toward the end of the conference, CAA-Getty participants meet with Rebecca Brown, editor of Art Journal, Kirk Ambrose, editor of The Art Bulletin, and Gail Feigenbaum of the Getty Research Institute to learn about publishing art history in the United States and opportunities for residencies at research institutes.

 

“Early Modern Architecture: Regional Approach vs. National History,” Lev Maciel, National Research University, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia, presented at the 2016 preconference colloquium (photograph provided by Lev Maciel).

 

 

The [EESA] roundtable offered me an absolutely new perspective to study and understand the contemporary artistic movements in Eastern Europe. . . . I hadn’t realized the hard intention of art historians to get free from the permanent comparison to European developments.

—Ildikó Gericsné Fehér (Hungary)

For me, the CAA-Getty International Program has had a significant impact on my career and life. The program provided me an opportunity for broader discussions around methodologies and approaches to building a rich, sophisticated, cross-regional, and archival history of international art history. Participating in the project helped me better understand Vietnamese art in the context of world art, strengthen my research, and improve my lectures and writing on Vietnamese art.

—Bùi Thị Thanh Mai (Vietnam)

 

 

2017

  • At the suggestion of Deborah Marrow, then director of the Getty Foundation, CAA devotes the sixth year of the program to a reunion of previous program alumni with the purpose of solidifying relationships among them and between the group and CAA. Twenty alumni present papers during the Annual Conference in New York City.
  • Two landmark activities for the program are introduced: online discussions, held during the spring and summer, open to all alumni to explore international topics and determine themes for the following year’s program; and conference sessions organized and presented by alumni, titled Global Conversations.
  • Between October and February, participating alumni develop their papers via email in consultation with four NCHA members, who also serve as moderators for the sessions. These were the first Global Conversations sessions that have been a presence at CAA conferences ever since.
  • A wrap-up meeting at the end of the conference provides an opportunity for alumni to analyze the accomplishments of the program to date and to imagine ways forward. Two key ideas are proposed: to bring a small number of alumni back each year to serve as advisors/moderators for new scholars entering the program; and to provide an annual opportunity for CAA-Getty scholars to present their work at the conference, in addition to the preconference colloquium.
  • After the conference, the papers are edited and posted on CAA’s website.

 

 

“Aby Warburg and the Boundaries of Art History,” Rosa Gabriella de Castro Gonçalves, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Savador, Brazil, presented at a 2017 Global Conversations reunion session (slide photograph provided by Rosa Gabriella de Castro Gonçalves). The slide includes a photograph, “Aby Warburg with an unidentified Hopi dancer, Arizona, May 1896” (photograph in the public domain, provided by Warburg Institute Archive, London).

 

 

The Global Conversations sessions at the conference in New York were particularly beneficial to me due to the extensive debates on important issues such as educational systems, university curricula, exhibition strategies, and institutional structures for art as practiced in the United States and around the world. I also learned how both American and international art historians, philosophers of culture, and museum curators view the current state of the art historical discipline, and which methodologies are considered most useful and relevant for research in the field. . . . The sustained alumni network of the CAA-Getty International Program, including the American hosts, has supported my professional development even as it stimulates transnational cooperation and research projects for the future.

—Irena Kossowska (Poland)

I think having a reunion of past grant recipients was a fantastic idea. My re-interaction with the conference indicated clearly how my own research and academic work has flourished since 2014 in a manner that has not be made evident in other contexts.

—Portia Malatjie (South Africa)

 

 

2018

  • Embracing the proposal by alumni in 2017, CAA invites five alumni to join fifteen new scholars at the Annual Conference in Los Angeles. Creating a model for subsequent years, the alumni provide continuity and leadership to new scholars in the exploration of international issues in the field.
  • One country, Thailand, is represented for the first time.
  • Once again relying on CAA’s online platform, all alumni are invited to discuss topics for the following year’s Global Conversations session. Arriving at the theme of Art and Mobility, a jury selects five alumni—Cezar Bartholomeu (Brazil), Parul Pandya Dhar (India), Ildikó Gericsné Fehér (Hungary), Peju Layiwola (Nigeria), and Nomusa Makhubu (South Africa)—who organize a Global Conversations session titled “Border Crossings: The Migration of Art, People, and Ideas.” These alumni also serve as advisors and moderators for the 2018 preconference colloquium.
  • The preconference colloquium is held at the Getty Center. Having worked on their preconference papers via email with their alumni advisors, the international participants present their work in five groups according to the following themes: Postcolonial and Eurocentric Legacies; Global Trends in Museum Research and Exhibition; Interdisciplinary and Transnational Methodologies; Cultural Identity, Politics, and the Powers of Art; and Considering an International Art History Curriculum.
  • A new event is added to the program this year: a coffee reception cosponsored by CAA and NCHA to provide an additional opportunity for the international scholars to meet members of NCHA and CAA’s International Committee.

 

 

“The Mediation of the Object: Iconographies of Travel across the Indian Ocean,” Parul Pandya Dhar, University of Delhi, presented at the 2018 Global Conversations alumni session (slide photograph provided by Parul Pandya Dhar). The slide includes works from fifth-century Ajanta, India and ninth-century Indonesia (artworks in the public domain).

 

 

Nothing is better for creating new and valuable experiences, and for exploring and sharing ideas, than a wide discussion platform such as the CAA-Getty International Program, which helps to tie different cultures together. Besides being honored to be part of this exceptional community, the experience helped me foster a closer look at my area of specialization from a wider perspective: across spatial borders, time, media, and cross-cultural influences.

—Markéta Hánová (Czech Republic)

My former professor from Poland, Piotr Piotrowski, spoke in his books and papers about a horizontal art history, a need to create a decolonial, nonhierarchical, transnational, transcultural, and inter-epistemic dialogue among scholars and within the narratives of art history. I personally believe that the CAA-Getty International Program is the best realization of this goal. The meetings that are generated by the program are based on a true exploration of ideas, conducted with respect and friendship among scholars from all over the world. The intense exchanges that result produce not only an understanding of different points of view, but also the discovery that, in spite of many differences, we are very close to each other, our art historical questions are sometimes surprisingly similar, and we support the very same ideals of scholarly collaboration without borders.

—Katarzyna Cytlak (Poland/Argentina)

 

 

2019

  • Five alumni and fifteen new participants attend the Annual Conference in New York, followed by a visit to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA.
  • Participants in this year’s program include scholars from Albania and Greece for the first time.
  • Immediately following the 2018 conference, all alumni are invited to discuss topics for the following year’s Global Conversations session. Now connecting via the online forum Humanities Commons, the group uses the topic of the 2018 alumni session about migration to begin its discussion, exploring different aspects of art and mobility. After a call for proposals, a jury selects five alumni, who organize a Global Conversations session titled “Creative Pedagogy: Mapping the In Between Across Cultures.” These alumni— Katarzyna Cytlak (Argentina), Chen Liu (China), Sarena Abdullah (Malaysia), Nadhra Shahbaz Khan (Pakistan), Nazar Kozak (Ukraine)—also serve as advisors and moderators for the 2019 preconference colloquium.
  • The 2019 preconference colloquium is held on the day preceding the conference at Parsons School of Design–The New School. New participants had worked with alumni on their presentations for two months prior to the event, honing the focus of their talks to the common themes: Examples of Defining or Constructing Aesthetics in Chinese and Japanese Art; Orientalism/Occidentalism; How Do We Approach Religious Art?; The Body, Identity, and Artistic Agency; and Politics and Art in Dark Times.

 

 

“Orientalism and Female Portraiture in Nineteenth-Century Painting in Romania,” Oana Maria Nicuță Nae, George Enescu National University of Arts, Iasi, Romania, presented at the 2019 preconference colloquium (slide photograph provided by Oana Maria Nicuță Nae). The slide includes photographs of two paintings by Theodor Aman (1873 and 1862) (artworks in the public domain).

 

 

In my academic experience, I have never ever come across a selection process which is so transparent and democratic. . . . Listening to all the preconference sessions by other participants opened up a whole new world of common issues faced by all of us on a daily basis, irrespective of the countries. But it also taught me how to overcome the challenges.

—Swati Chemburkar (India)

I thought the preconference discussion was excellent. I really appreciated having THREE expert pairs of eyes look over my paper (what a treat!) and offer feedback. The discussion also made participants feel part of the program, working together towards a common goal. . . . What I liked best was the opportunity to hear a total of fifteen short well-thought-through papers on subjects I would not necessarily select to attend at a conference.

—Richard Bullen (New Zealand)

 

 

 

2020

  • Fifteen new participants and five alumni attend the Annual Conference, held in Chicago.
  • Bolivia, Ivory Coast, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore are represented for the first time, bringing the total number of countries represented by CAA-Getty participants to fifty.
  • Beginning just after the 2019 conference, interested alumni join an online discussion to identify a topic for the Global Conversations alumni session in 2020. The discussion is led by Nomusa Makhubu, Pearlie Rose Baluyut, and Janet Landay, this year joined by Nazar Kozak (moderator of the 2019 alumni session and a member of CAA’s International Committee). Alumni address “the politics of seeing in art history, understood as a power struggle of interpretations conducted from divergent perspectives: past and present, right and left, neo-imperialist and decolonial, industrialist and environmentalist, as well as all the spectrum in between these and similar binaries.”
  • A jury selects Iro Katsaridou (Greece), Pedith Chan (Hong Kong), Nóra Veszprémi (Hungary/UK), Abiodun Akande (Nigeria), and Cristian Nae (Romania), who will also serve as moderator. Their Global Conversations session is titled “Things Aren’t Always as They Seem: Art History and the Politics of Vision.” (Due to illness, Cristian Nae is unable to attend the conference; his role as moderator of the preconference is filled by Katarzyna Cytlak, an alumna from 2018; his role as moderator of the alumni session is filled by Nazar Kozak, an alumnus who first joined the program in 2015.)
  • In February 2020 the preconference colloquium, held at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, includes five sessions: “New Perspectives in Indigenous Arts: Multilayered Modernities across Time and Place,” “The Politics of Cultural Heritage,” “Expanding the Subjects of Art Historical Study,” “Global Exiles and Connections,” and “Critical Pedagogy in Art and Design.”
  • Each session is moderated by an alumna or alumnus of the program and includes three papers by new participants. The groups have been working together since the previous October to identify overarching similarities and differences among their papers. Pearlie Rose Baluyut and Janet Landay edit the papers in advance (as they did the previous year). For the first time, papers are circulated prior to the preconference to CAA-Getty program participants and the hosts.

 

 

“To Give Shape to Time: Contemporary Perspectives on Prehispanic Ceramics,” Giuliana Vidarte, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Lima, Peru, presented at the 2020 preconference colloquium (slide photograph provided by Giuliana Vidarte). The slide includes a photograph of three 2019 works by Lastenia Canayo (artworks © Lastenia Canayo, published under fair use).

 

 

Attending the CAA conference was hugely stimulating, and I left feeling excited about the future of art history. It reminded me of the strengths of deep art historical research in providing a more complex and nuanced understanding of art and society.

—Julia Waite (New Zealand)

Participating in the CAA-Getty preconference colloquium gave me many ideas on how to connect art histories between unlikely contexts. For example, I identified similar interests regarding issues of coloniality, indigenous art, and geopolitics in presentations from Nigeria, New Zealand, and South Africa. . . . I am one of not more than a handful of art historians in Bolivia, and I have almost no opportunities to exchange ideas about art, research, and education. For this reason, I cannot emphasize enough the impact that attending these meetings can have for colleagues in similar situations around the world.

—Valeria Paz Moscoso (Bolivia)

 

 

2021

  • Originally planned as an in-person event, but revised because of the COVID-19 pandemic, an online program with nineteen alumni participants takes place between June 2020 and the first virtual CAA Annual Conference in February 2021.
  • The alumni form five groups organized around themes, each with three or four participants and an NCHA member serving as an advisor/moderator. The themes are the Migration of Art and Ideas; the Climate Crisis, Pandemics, Art, and Scholarship; The Challenges, Disobediences, and Resistances of Art in the Transnational Imagination; Disruptive Pedagogies and the Legacies of Imperialism and Nationalism; and a Multiplicity of Perspectives at the Museum of Modern Art (in conversation with curators at MoMA).
  • Beginning in June 2020, the groups meet every six weeks to listen to and discuss informal presentations by the alumni. By September, guest scholars are invited to join these online meetings to contribute additional perspectives on the topics.
  • By December, alumni participants finalize their presentations, NCHA participants write their discussant remarks, and the sessions are videotaped and captioned for presentation at the conference.
  • At the February virtual conference, the five Global Conversations sessions are among the 40 most-viewed presentations out of 327 prerecorded programs. The live Q&A sessions are among the 15 best attended out of 342.

 

“Anthropocene and Capitalocene: Soil, Land, and Territory in the Artistic Research of Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan,” Cristian Nae, George Enescu National University of Arts, Iasi, Romania, presented at a 2021 Global Conversations session (slide photograph provided by Cristian Nae). The slide includes a photograph of an installation by Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan, The Last Land, 2018 (artwork © Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan, published under fair use).

 

 

Although Zoom meetings can’t replace face-to-face meetings, the 2021 International Program was an incredibly challenging and enriching experience. One of the things I most appreciated was sharing my research with renowned scholars from all over the world and having the opportunity to discuss my ideas throughout this past year. . . . I learnt so much from all the participants. Their commitment and warmth have shone through during these uncertain and trying times. Thank you all for being an inspiring network for collective thinking and action.

—Daniela Lucena (Argentina)

The great challenge for the CAA-Getty International Program now is not only to share new information and ideas about different places in the world, but also to figure out how to evaluate all the cross-cultural connections we have made over the past ten years. It's not easy to step outside the limits of our own perspectives—we could call them local databases and relationships. But our experiences of the last year show it can paradoxically be done even better than in previous years. We already know that the COVID crisis is accelerating a good deal of global awareness; this year's CAA-Getty program, which included multiple online discussions among scholars from around the world, showed how we can accelerate our global scholarly understanding. 

—Richard Gregor (Slovakia)