CFP: Association for Art History Annual Conference
9–11 April 2025, University of York
Session: Museum Exhibitions and the Political Economy of Exchange
Deadline: 1st November 2024
Temporary exhibitions shared between museums are labour-, capital-, and time-intensive undertakings, and employ increasingly specialised actors, techniques, and infrastructures. They are used to strengthen international diplomacy and generate revenue for museums and their locales. Museum studies has long been concerned with permanent collections, while the exhibition industry—a core part of museum programming—remains undertheorized. Yet a serious structural analysis of how circulating exhibitions are produced can illuminate conditions beyond the museum that determine object im/mobility, the geopolitics of loans, and the power relations that govern shared practices.
This session invites proposals for 15-minute papers that grapple with the political economy of museum exhibitions, from the nineteenth century to the present. How has international legislation shaped norms for temporarily importing objects (e.g., barriers to entry for new art forms, government indemnity schemes, responses to the climate crisis)? How has free trade or protectionist policies (e.g. multilateral agreements such as NAFTA, EU, or BRICS) impacted object movement? How have geopolitical tensions or reconfigurations of national policies (e.g., the Brexit vote, armed conflict) contoured the design of exhibitions?
What objects circulate through these policies, which actors (beyond curators) determine object itineraries, and which audiences gain or lose access? We are particularly interested in proposals that go beyond the discussion of single exhibitions to draw out relationships between the international norms of museum exhibition-making and external policy, scrutinising the economy of the leisure industry, revealing the asymmetries of global circulation circuits, and challenging established narratives of centre and periphery.
To submit a proposal, you need to provide a title and abstract (250 words maximum) for a 15-minute paper, your name and institutional affiliation (if any).
Please email your paper proposals direct to the session convenor(s)
Matilde Cartolari, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität / Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich. m.cartolari@zikg.eu
Nushelle de Silva, Fordham University, USA. nushelle@fordham.edu
Please note that:
- You do not need to be a member to submit a proposal. However, all delegates, including speakers and convenors, need to pay the appropriate conference fee. Membership is not compulsory, but offers discount in the ticket prices (for a comparison, see the 2023 edition at eu.eventscloud.com/website/5317/tickets/).
- Concessionary tickets support students and people on low income (those with an annual income of less than £20,000 per year).
- Conference bursaries for PhD and Early Career Researchers will be available on the AAH website starting from November 15: forarthistory.org.uk/latest_news/2025-annual-conference-bursaries/.
For further information: forarthistory.org.uk/annual-conference/
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