Enfilade

Grazie Mille!

Posted in site information by Editor on July 25, 2009

Editor’s Note

Whether you’re here for the twenty-fifth time or the first, thanks ever so much. After only a month, Enfilade has had just over a thousand visitors! Thanks especially to those of you who have sent in ideas. I’m more convinced than ever of the need for this kind of information entrepôt. In addition to serving the immediate function of communicating HECAA news, the site also aims to promote the field of eighteenth-century art history more generally. It is an extraordinary period for the visual arts, and we all probably could do a better job of making that case, both to academic colleagues and the broader public. If you’re not a HECAA member, you are by all means most welcome here. At the same time, we hope you’ll consider joining; at $20 it’s a bargain even during a recession (and just $5 for students).

In the coming weeks, you’ll hear directly from a widening range of voices – starting on Monday with an ‘On Site’ piece from Michael Yonan. So please continue to pass along notices regarding exhibitions, CFPs, and new books. But also consider submitting content of your own – reflections on particular aspects of the field, a response to a recent museum visit, a review of two or three articles linked by a common theme, or perhaps a favorite teaching assignment. I know all too well the tinge of panic that sets in at August: where has the summer gone, and how can I still have this much to do? But articles for Enfilade need not be long (300-600 words), and in contrast to most forms of academic publishing, you’ll have readers taking notice within a matter of days.

Thanks again for such a strong launch!
Craig Hanson

May I please . . .

Posted in books, reviews by Editor on July 25, 2009

0226046389.jpegFor many art historians, summer is the season for securing permissions for publishing images in forthcoming articles and books. Even without the copyright challenges that face our colleagues working on twentieth-century topics, the process is still often laborious and expensive. Susan Bielstein, Executive Editor for Art, Architecture, Classical Studies and Film at the University of Chicago Press, provides an essential starting point with her 2006 book, Permissions, A Survival Guide: Blunt Talk About Art as Intellectual Property.

Writing for caa.reviews, Christine Kuan, Senior Editor for Grove Art Online/Grove Dictionaries of Art, Oxford University Press, calls the book “concise, engaging, and digestible,” a valuable guide to a “convoluted and vexed subject.”

In thirteen chapters containing summaries of major court cases and their ramifications, countless hilarious anecdotes illustrative of copyright conundrums, footnotes, sample letters, useful sidebars, a sample image permissions log, a list of image sources, and suggested further reading, this book deftly interweaves explanations of intellectual property issues with real-life experiences in academic publishing.

Soon after the book’s release, Bielstein appeared on “The Library Café,” a weekly radio program from Vassar College then hosted by Dr. Thomas Hill. The website for WVKR FM 91.3 includes a ‘Listen Link’ for the 2007 episode featuring Bielstein. In addition to talking about her book, Bielstein addresses the state of the field of art history publishing more generally.