New York: CAA and WMS

I recently returned from a trip to New York, where I attended a CAA conference and led a conference session for the William Morris Society in the United States. It was such a different experience from when I attended CAA in New York about nine years ago, as a mere attendee without the responsibility of a presentation or a role in a session. It also felt like a wonderful full-circle moment too, because I got to meet up with Sedef Piker and chat for a while with her, which was fun. I was reminded of how the art history bloggers got together for lunch back in 2013 when I was at CAA that year. Back then, that was my only social engagement at CAA, with bloggers that I knew well from online interactions but had never met in person.

This time at CAA, I had many more things to do, more colleagues to see, and some specific sessions which were helpful for my teaching and generative for my own research and ideas. Although I have had some frustrations with working on the WMS-US board, I am grateful for some of the the associations that I have made and the professional development that it has afforded me. I ran into Heather Belnap on the last day of the conference - as we were both leaving the hotel - and I think it made her happy and proud to see one of her former students actively involved in the discipline and seeking professional development.

I am proud of the CAA session that I put together. We had about sixty people in attendance, which is good for our society. (I think we had maybe 20-30 people in attendance at the previous MLA/CAA sessions I have attended.) I think that the topic of post-colonialism and craft also is an important one. I especially liked Kristen Dorsey's talk on "strategic essentialism" as a strategy for Native craftsman in order to withhold themselves and maintain a position of power in context of a Western tourist market.

I also really enjoyed getting to hang out with Anna W after the session. She and I first connected in January 2020, at a WMS event in Seattle that was held in conjunction with an MLA session (one that I spoke at). Anna made a comment about how people in the William Morris Society are some of the nicest among those in academia, and I think she is absolutely right. Maybe William Morris's own temperament and/or interests attract nice people? After I connected with her and Jane Carlin at the events that were held that weekend in 2020, I became even more interested in the society. My positive interactions with them swayed my decision when I was invited to serve on the board, and I've really liked working with Anna. We made sure to snap a picture while we hung out at Lillie's Victorian Establishment after the recent CAA session:

The William Morris Society also held an event at the Grolier Club later that same week. Anna W wasn't able to make it (she got sick with Covid), but I did get to meet some of the other board members whom I hadn't met in person before. We are a hodgepodge group in some ways, but everyone is very nice and welcoming. It was strange to see how tall/short the others are, since we have only seen each other on Zoom until now. It was fun to get a tour of the Grolier library and see some William Morris related items, including a beautiful book with a cover that was embroidered by May Morris.

Mark, Tracy and Jude

The other fun thing that I really enjoyed doing was getting to see Chris June working at Christie's. I was able to see the last day of the André Leon Talley auction and Chris was there on the floor, working on the phones with the rest of his colleagues. It made me so happy to see Chris in his work element. If I stopped teaching tomorrow, I would feel happy knowing that I played a role in getting Chris into his own career path. I know he's doing and will continue to do a lot of great things, because of the high achiever that he is.

Chris was able to step over and say hello to me during lots. We also got to go out to dinner one of the nights that I was in town and properly catch up. He is such a delight! I love that we have so many crossover memories of not only the art history classes, but also singing in choir together.