Art critic and writer Lucy Lippard said in 1980 that a “developed feminist consciousness brings with it an altered concept of reality that is crucial to the art being made and to the lives lived with that art.”
For four years, the annual Feminist Art History Conference (FAHC) in Washington, D.C., has recognized the importance of this “altered concept of reality,” opening a shared dialogue among art historians and feminist scholars. This year’s conference culminates in a panel discussion at the National Museum of Women in the Arts featuring the newly released book The Reckoning: Women Artists of the New Millennium. The event (free with museum admission) is open to the public and no reservations are required. Click here for more information.
Packed house at the 2012 Feminist Art History Conference; Photo courtesy of American University
The 2013 conference begins Friday, November 8, 2013, and will continue through Sunday, with registration now open. American University sponsors the three-day event, which brings together a vast network of scholars, students, and experts with specializations in feminism, gender studies, and art history.
The nearly 70 papers presented at the conference are organized into 16 engaging panel topics that cover a diverse range of international scholarship from pre-Modernism to contemporary art. The FAHC schedule highlights panel discussions as well as Sunday events at NMWA:
FRIDAY [American University’s Katzen Art Center]
- Afternoon—Conference registration opens and program sessions begin.
- Evening—Opening reception followed by a keynote address from Dr. Patricia Simons, professor in the history of art and women’s studies, University of Michigan, presenting: “Devotion and Desire: Women Viewers and the Case of the ‘Lesbian Nun’ in Early Seventeenth-Century Italy.”
SATURDAY [American University’s Katzen Art Center]
- Morning and Afternoon—Conference registration and conference panel sessions continue; conference luncheon.
- Evening—Day two reception.
SUNDAY [National Museum of Women in the Arts]
- Early Afternoon—Conference participants are welcome to view the exhibition American People, Black Light: Faith Ringgold’s Paintings of the 1960s, which features 45 of Ringgold’s rarely-shown paintings from the 1960s.
- Afternoon—The conference’s corollary event will feature a panel discussion by authors Eleanor Heartney, Nancy Princenthal, Helaine Posner, and Sue Scott about their new book, The Reckoning: Women Artists of the New Millennium. The panel will explore the new generation of international women artists who have contributed to today’s art scene. The Reckoning continues the scholarship of After the Revolution: Women who Transformed Contemporary Art, and the panel is open to the public with museum admission.
You can view a more extensive preliminary program for the 2013 Feminist Art History Conference here or visit American.edu for more information.
—J. Rachel Gustafson is a curatorial intern at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
