Despite an overall increase in Caucus activities and participation the number of actual paid memberships is holding flat. We urge you to pay up -- especially as our newsletter and meeting costs increase. There is a real danger that we will run out of money by the end of next year if memberships are not renewed. Please send us your check today. Membership is on a sliding scale $5-25. If you can only pay $5 that’s great. We'll take it. If you can afford to pay more than $25 we’ll take that too. It would really help.
At the annual meeting the Caucus also formed a committee to deal with professional practices and activism. We did this in part because we want the Caucus to be a resource for people dealing with general professional issues: finding, keeping, thriving, and advancing in jobs; finding opportunities for publishing, showing work, etc. But intimately involved in all these matters -- and especially important for the Caucus to address -- are issues concerning sexuality-and-gender queerness that affect our professional lives and the social/political context in which we live. Despite some advances, LBGT people and cultural productions have always faced work-related struggles. Now as anti-justice news comes at us daily, we need to be working actively and in coalition. To this end the Caucus also recommitted to thinking broadly about justice issues and to do liaison work with the Women in the Arts Committee and the Cultural Diversity Committee.
This brings us as usual to the section of the co-chairs’ statement where we request your participation, also known as begging. Please consider joining one of the Caucus committees that you will find described in the minutes: we need people who want to work on exhibitions, future panels, professional issues and activism, awards, as well as the museum project mentioned above. We’ve got work and pleasure to share.
Thanks,
Erica & Jonathan
erand@bates.edu
katzartfag@aol.com
Summary of major expenses: The newsletters last year averaged a cost of $800 per mailing. This year’s reception at CAA cost $542. Since January 1, 2001, we have received $1029 in membership dues and donations including those monies collected at the conference in Chicago. We have added approximately 25 new members for a total membership count of 345. Of those 345 members, 65 have paid membership dues since the start of the year.
While we remain solvent, we are spending more money than we are making.
Sallie McCorkle
QCA Treasurer and Membership Coordinator
smm11@psu.edu
Revised bylaws were distributed. All changes had been substantially approved at the 2000 business meeting. The bylaws were officially approved as distributed at the meeting.
Sallie McCorkle presented a treasurer’s report: there is approximately $1400 in the bank account, with $300 still in the account in Philadelphia, maintained by the outgoing treasurer Daniel Heyman (to be transferred). Renewing members and donations during the reception added several hundred dollars. There is also approximately $400 in the fundraising account from the New York conference.
The Caucus has been living off income from the 1994 bibliography for many years. Each issue of the newsletter costs approximately $750. The reception cost approximately the same amount of money. While there are about 350 people on the mailing list, only about 100 regularly pay membership dues. There was significant support for retaining the current dues of $25 for employed members but emphasis will be given to the sliding scale starting at $5 for students and those who are unemployed or underemployed. Those who do not indicate that they continue to be interested in the caucus will be dropped. Non-renewing members should be individually addressed before they are dropped. Sallie McCorkle has received the membership database from Jonathan Weinberg and the officers will determine how to best weed the mailing list of inactive names.
The newsletter is widely accepted as a necessary information and outreach vehicle for the Caucus. Considerable support was also expressed for a more timely means of communication. The Caucus has established an electronic discussion list and the officers will work toward expeditious use of an electronic list for caucus business as well as for announcements and discussion of queer art. Tee Corinne and Sherman Clarke agreed to continue editing the newsletter.
The Caucus-sponsored panel for the 2002 conference is entitled “Postqueer?” and is chaired by Noreen Dean Dresser. Jeffrey Byrd agreed to co-chair. A discussion of generations of art and activism was proposed for the lunchtime session (more informal than the panel). The committee to work on the session includes Tony Gray, Laura Migliorino, Jim Sanders, and Jongwoo Kim.
The deadline for the 2003 panel will be September 15th (2001). The committee to work on the proposal includes Jim Saslow, Harmony Hammond, and Flavia Rando.
Caucus exhibitions need local coordination, a call for participation, person and place to receive works, and installation team. The 2001 plan was abandoned when a place to receive works was not found. Shows are a good way to attract members and they encourage participation by artists. It is necessary to work 2-3 years in advance to have good choices for exhibition spaces. The committee to work on criteria for exhibitions in general as well as a 2003 exhibition includes Dean Dresser, Anthony Smith, Sallie McCorkle, Darden Bradshaw, and Robert Repinski (Robert will chair the committee). Sallie has talked to someone in Philadelphia about a video showing during the conference which could provide a solid alternative to a show -- probably cheaper, easier to mount, easier to find a venue, etc. Though open shows are good for participation, curated shows would also be good sometimes. It is probably already too late to put together a show for Philadelphia.
The next topic of discussion was professional support. Harmony described a grade appeal that she has been involved in. A student claimed that Harmony gave her a C because she was straight. The student is now submitting well-written briefs in the appeal though her papers were inarticulate. Harmony suspects involvement by some group like Accuracy in Academia. How can the Caucus support individuals when confronting cases like this? Do we need letterhead or is CAA or institutional letterhead stronger? The CAA Committee for Cultural Diversity also studies such cases and Laura Migliorino agreed to provide liaison with that committee. We should also be involved with the Committee for Professional Practices. Flavia Rando is involved with the Committee on Women in the Arts and will provide liaison between the Caucus and that committee. The overall committee on professional practices and activism includes Flavia Rando, Dean Dresser (WCA and grad student outreach), Leslie Bostrom, Erica Rand, Darden Bradshaw, and Laura Migliorino.
The Caucus would like to institute awards for praise and/or blame for institutions or individuals relative to our mission. Jonathan Katz received a letter from Nick Mirzoeff who was rebuffed from a panel at Kean College. Mirzoeff is straight but intended to include queers along with Jews and Africans in a discussion of diaspora. A report on his situation will be included in the next newsletter. (An email discussion before the meeting proposed a regular column on praise/blame in the newsletter.) Jonathan and Chris Reed agreed to serve as a committee on awards. [See report on Mirzoeff situation at Kean in this issue.]
Report by Sherman Clarke, secretary
sherman.clarke@nyu.edu
On behalf of the Queer Caucus for Art, the officers wish to express their deepest gratitude to Jonathan Weinberg for his years of service as the caucus’s membership coordinator.
... proceed to report on plans for San Francisco 4th Annual Queer Arts Festival ...