From the President

As your new president, I embrace this opportunity to serve the field of African Art (whether it's art history, anthropology, visual culture, ethnomusicology, performance studies or 'other') that has been my intellectual home since I wrote a senior honors thesis on Giacometti and the influence that non-Western art had on his work - in 1966 - in an environment where there was no one to supervise the study and I read "all the wrong things" because "all the right things" were in progress! I have always been grateful for the hospitality of a field in which the young scholars are as important as the senior scholars (not entirely true in all academic fields), because they are breaking new ground and often have 'discovered' something the rest of us know little about.

Arnold Rubin, founder of ACASA, was my first thesis advisor (but not the ultimate one). We had our personal disagreements, but I never had anything but the greatest respect for his mind. ACASA is one of the lasting legacies that he has left for us. I hope that in this time of economic uncertainty we will make the greatest effort to work together, to deliver the best Triennial yet (a daunting task after Florida's accomplishment), and to continue to develop links with our colleagues in Africa and elsewhere in the Diaspora. With regard to the next Triennial, we have extended the period between this and the previous one, so that it will take place in 2011. We hope to have more definitive news for you very soon with regard to the venue. I look to all of you--the board, the regular membership, those who are only members during Triennial years, and those who are not members but who are lovers of African visual culture - ALL OF YOU - to participate in ACASA (become members if you are not) and to further our collective progress in understanding the past arts of Africa and furthering our study of the contemporary. 'Let there be peace in our house' as we say in Okpella -- prosperity and knowledge, too.