Speaking
Recent and Upcoming
“The Evolution of Public Art: From Picasso to Public Participation,” Roundtable by the 92nd Street Y. Two sessions: September 10, 2024 and September 17, 2024: https://roundtable.org/live-courses/arts/the-evolution-of-public-art-from-picasso-to-public-participation.
“Negotiating the Public Art Terrain.” Art Students League. April 18, 2024.
“Monuments to the Founding Fathers.” Roundtable by the 92nd Street Y. February 15, 2024. Available for download for Roundtable subscribers: https://roundtable.org/live-courses/history/monuments-to-the-founding-fathers.
“Monumental Controversies.” Columbia University. June 8, 2023.
“Memorials to Women: New Forms, New Subjects, Many Questions.” 20th Anniversary of Patricia Cronin’s Memorial to a Marriage. Woodlawn Cemetery. November 6, 2022.
“Rethinking Memorials.” Art Table. June 2, 2021.
“Memorial Options: Figures, Walls, Museums, Gardens or ?,” Miami University, Ohio. March 18, 2021.
“Memorial Options: Figures, Walls, Museums, Gardens or ?,” given to commission in charge of building a memorial to the shootings that took place in Las Vegas after a concert on 1 October 2017. January 26, 2021.
“Monumental Controversies: Mount Rushmore, Four Presidents, and the Quest for National Identity.” Fairfield University. October 8, 2020.
Panel respondent: “Contested Legacies: Public Monuments in Global Perspective.” Columbia University. October 8, 2020.
“Expert consultation on contested histories and inter-ethnic relations.” Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).“ The Hague. September 19 and 20, 2019.
“Public art in the aftermath of the revisited commemoration process.” The Galerie de l’UQAM, Montreal, October 7, 2019.
Art & Art History Lecture. Colgate University. October 30, 2019
“Where is She? Public Art and the Absence of Women.” Art Table, May 9, 2019.
“A Collective Ribbon: Weaving Stories of the Triangle Fire: A Participatory Community Event.” Fashion Institute of Technology, March 16, 2019.
“Double Disappearance: A Symposium About the Undocumented Memorial of 9/11.” School of Visual Arts, March 2, 2019.
“Memorial Visions: Fifteen Years After the 9-11 Competition,” AIA New York | Center for
Architecture, July 25, 2018.
“Public Memory and Public Monuments: Where Do We Stand in 2018?” TEFAF Coffee Talks, Fall 2018.
“Monuments as History Art Power,” CUNY Graduate Center, June 2018.
Selected Professional Lectures
“Redefining Memorials: The Conflation of Heroes and Victims,” Sculpture City; Saint Louis, April 2014.
“The Valorization of Victims and its Implications,” Curating Trauma: Displaying the Unspeakable from Memorials to Global Representation of Victims, NYU, May 2012.
“Memorials to Shattered Myths,” Columbia University, Dept. of Architecture and Planning, Nov. 2011.
Panel co-chair: “Site Variations: The Shifting Grounds of Public Art,” CAA, Chicago, Feb. 2010.
“From Art in Public Places to Public Art,” Abstraction in the Public Sphere: New Approaches,” A Symposium Celebrating the George Rickey Archive at Notre Dame, Sept. 2009
Panel chair: “Memorial Competitions, 1827-2007), Designing the Parks, National Park Service, Charlottesville, VA, May 2008.
Panel chair: “Art in Public Spaces: Memory” and “Art in Public Spaces: Urban Spaces,” Cultural Studies Association, NYC, May 2008.
Panel chair: “(Art) Historians Teaching Public Art: Establishing a Critical Language and History,” 21st International Sculpture Conference, Grand Rapids, Oct. 2008
“Reconsidering the Figurative in Public Art,” Public Art Network (PAN) in conjunction with Americans for the Arts, Philadelphia, June 2008.
“Public and Private Memorials “ Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, St. Louis, June 2007.
“Public Art: A Personal Trajectory,” Public Art and Process panel, CAA 2006, Feb. 2007.
“Uses and Abuses of Public Art on Campus,” Colgate/Hamilton, Sept. 2006.
Panel co-chair, “From Heroes to Victims: American Memorials and their Subjects,” Women’s Caucus for Art, Boston, Feb. 2006.
“If It Happened Here…: Berlin’s Holocaust Memorials and the Art of Implication,” Association for Jewish Studies, Washington, Dec. 2005.
“From the Center: The Centripetal and Centrifugal Force of Memorials from Vietnam to Columbine,” CAA, Atlanta, Feb. 2005.
“A Community of Mourners: The Transformation of Public Space in NYC after 9/11″ XXXI th International Congress of the History of Art, Montreal, Aug. 2004.
“Communities of Mourning: Spontaneous Memorials and the Sacralization of Public Space,” Lower East Side Tenement Museum, Oct. 2003.
“From Collected to Collective Memory: Cultural Denial in the Columbine Shootings,” Monuments, Memory, Modernism: The 12th Annual Front Range Symposium in Art History, Boulder, CO, Sept. 2003.
“Responsible Criticism: Evaluating Public Art,” Public Art Network keynote address, Americans for the Arts Pre-conference, Portland, OR, June 2003.
Panel chair, “Public Art and Public Response: What Do We Really Know?” CAA, NYC, Feb. 2003.
“Beyond Sept. 11: Public Memory and Public Space,” Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (AZ), Sept. 2002.
Panel chair, “Art Outside the Museum” and “A Museum Roundtable: American Art and Reconstruction: The Twenty-First Century,” American Art at the Crossroads, The Graduate Center, NYC, April 2002.
“Lessons from the Past: Memorials and Meaning in the U.S.,” NYU, March 2002.
“VARA, Abstract Art, and Attorneys,” College Art Association, Philadelphia, Feb. 2002.
“Spontaneous Memorials, the Sacralization of Public Space, and the Formation of Collective Memory: from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the Columbine Killings,” Art and Influence, Stockholm, Sept. 2001.
“Casts in a Postmodern Context: Museum Professionals, Educators, Artists,” symposium organized in conjunction with exhibition, Re-Cast: Postmodern Classical, Onassis Cultural Center, NYC, Mar. 2001. “Spontaneous Memorials and Collective Memory: From the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the Columbine Killings,” Carnegie Mellon University, Nov. 2000.
“From Collected to Collective Memory: Mourning and Denial in the Wake of the Columbine Killings,” XXXth International Congress of the History of Art, London, Sept. 2000.
“Public Sculpture and the Integration of the Arts: Theory and Praxis in the 1950s,” Figuration/Abstraction: Strategies for Public Sculpture in Europe 1945-1968, The Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, December 1999.
“Field Observations: Public Art and Public Response,” O-oh, Aah…oh! Art Audience Response, 1999 Arts Now Conference, SUNY, New Paltz, September 1999.
“From the Center: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial as Centripetal and Centrifugal Force,” Monuments and Cultural Memory, Akademie der Kunste, Berlin, November 1998.
“Baboons, Pet Rocks, and Bomb Threats: Public Art and Public Response,” Mayor’s Art in Public Places Breakfast, Tampa, FL, Feb 1998.
“Dangerous Precedent: Richard Serra’s `Tilted Arc’ in Context,” Swiss Institute for Art Research, Zurich, Jan 1998.
Perpetual Tension: Considering Richard Serra’s Art in Terms of his Jewish Identity,” College Art Association, NY, Jan 1997.
“Slabs, Towers, Arcs and Curves: Considering Richard Serra’s Public Sculpture,” Centro Helio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro, July 1997.
“Contemporary Public Art in the U.S.: An Overview,” Brazilia, Recife, and Sao Paulo, July 1997.
“Objects Left, Individuals Remembered: `Making Memory Real’ at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial,” XXIXth International Congress of the History of Art, Amsterdam, Sept. 1996.
“Public Art: Issues of Site and Memory,” Montclair Art Museum, NJ, March 1996.
“Public Art in the United States: The Urban Experience,” Public Art Seminar, Sao Paulo, Oct 1995.
“Collaboration: Historical Context, Contemporary Practice,” Chesterwood Seminar for Professional Sculptors, Aug 1995.
Panel co-chair, “From the Holy Land to Graceland; Twentieth-Century Pilgrimage Sites, Rituals, & Relics,” College Art Association, San Antonio, Jan 1995.
“Conservative Styles, Radical Misreadings: Racial Content in Public Art by David Hammons, John Ahearn, and Richard Haas,” College Art Association, NYC, Jan 1994.
“Rooted to the Spot: Site Specific Art in Public Places, ” High Museum of Art, Atlanta, May 1993.
“Missing in Action: Women and Public Art,” Public Art Fund, March 1993.
“Antoni Miralda’s `Honeymoon Project:’ The Marriage of the Statue of Liberty and Christopher Columbus: If It Isn’t Art, It Must Be Love,” American Studies Association, Costa Mesa, CA, Nov 1992.
“Public Art and Architecture: Facts and Fantasies,” American Institute of Architects, New York Chapter, Feb 1991.
“Art in Public Spaces – Its Use and Abuse,” Municipal Art Society, Oct 1990.
“Civic Sculpture Today: Contemporary Equivalents of the Athena Parthenos,” Nashville, May 1990
“Public Sculpture Today: Tradition, Transformation, and the Persistence of Controversy,” April 1990, New Orleans Arts Council
Panel co-chair, “Politics and Public Art: 1776 – 1990,” College Art Association, NYC, Feb 1990.
“Some Thoughts on the Memorial Redefined,” College Art Association, San Francisco, Feb 1989.
“New Directions in Public Art,” Haifa University, Israel, May 1988.
“Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc: Art and Non-Art Issues,” Houston, College Art Association, Feb 1988.
“Education and Public Art,” Public Art in America ’87, Philadelphia, Oct 1987.
“Public Commissions: Issues of Patronage and Politics,” National Sculpture Conference: Works by Women, May 1987.
“Public Art: Issues Today,” Princeton Art Association, Jan. 1986.
“Public Sculpture Under Attack,” Art Dealers Association of America panel, Guggenheim Museum, October 1985.
“Design and Renovation of Museum Buildings,” Metropolitan Museum of Art Workshop Program, March 1985.
“University Museums and Galleries: Programs, Problems and Potential,” Northeast Museums Conference, October 1984.
“The Patronage of Architectural Sculpture in New York City: 1950-1975,” College Art Association, NYC, Feb 1982.
Panel chair, “Site Defined Sculpture” and “How to Improve Public Response to Public Art,” 11th International Sculpture Conference, Washington, DC, Spring 1980.
“Architecture and Urban Sculpture: Gordon Bunshaft and Isamu Noguchi,” Society of Architectural Historians, San Antonio, 1978 meeting
