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ACASA, the Arts Council of the African Studies Association

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ACASA, the Arts Council of the African Studies Association, promotes greater understanding of African material and expressive culture in all its many forms, and encourages contact and collaboration with African and Diaspora artists and scholars.

Triennial Theme Announcement:
(full text here)

Africa and Its Diasporas in the Market Place:
Cultural Resources and the Global Economy

The ACASA Triennial program committee of Rowland Abiodun, Christa Clarke, Carol Magee, Doran Ross (chair) and Jessica Winegar has selected the proposal of Pamela Allara as a core theme for the Fifteenth Triennial Symposium on African Art to be held at the University of California, Los Angeles, March 23 to 26, 2011.

The core theme of the 2011 ACASA symposium examines the current status of Africa’s cultural resources and the influence—for good or ill—of market forces both inside and outside the continent. As nation states decline in influence and power, and corporations, private patrons and foundations increasingly determine the kinds of cultural production that will be supported, how is African art being reinterpreted and by whom? Are artists and scholars able to successfully articulate their own intellectual and cultural values in this climate? Is there anything we can do to address the situation?

Within this broad sweep the Triennial Program Committee has identified a number of potential panel, and roundtable topics that might provoke interest. They include:

  • Publications and market driven scholarship
  • The museum industry, the branding of artists, and creating a canon
  • Funding of research initiatives: opportunities and challenges
  • Selling contemporary art in Africa: artists, galleries, patrons
  • Forging traditions: the mass production and commodification of classic genres
  • Auctioning Africa from the 19th c. to the present day: cultural property and the
    market place
  • Hiring, promotion, and tenure in downsizing economies
  • Public vs. private sectors in the valuation of African art
  • Copyrights and fees for intellectual and cultural property
  • Tourism and the packaging of African expressive culture

Of course, this list is meant to be suggestive not exhaustive, and submissions on any topic beyond the core theme are also welcome.

For submission guidelines and additional information, click here: ACASA 15th Triennial Symposium.

  

 

Roy Sieber
Dissertation Award
The Roy Sieber Dissertation Award is granted to the most outstanding Ph.D. dissertation on some aspect of African and/or African Diaspora art, in any discipline. Details

Arnold Rubin Outstanding Publication Award
The Arnold Rubin Outstanding Publication Award honors publications for excellence in scholarship on the arts of Africa and the African Diaspora. Details

 
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