Annual Art History Graduate Conference - 2011

Making Space / Créer l'espace

A Graduate Conference on the Shifting Concept of Space
in Studies of Art and Visual Culture

March 11-12, 2011
Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

Keynote Speaker: 
Dr. Kirsten Emiko McAllister
Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Simon Fraser University

Concordia University's Art History Graduate Student Association presents Making Space, a two-day graduate conference that will work to investigate 'space' as a concept that is continually defined and redefined. Rather than simply reiterating the connection between notions of space and art, this conference will approach the topic as an issue of method and practice, and as a critical question.

The papers, which stem from a variety of disciplines and approaches, address the fundamental questions surrounding the notion of space: What frameworks are used to examine how artists and scholars address the concept of space? In the absence of a stable definition, how do we respond to and understand space in visual and artistic production without the concept loosing meaning? Can space be objective? How does space serve as a tool that allows us to talk about the world and the art object? In bringing together emerging scholars from across Canada, the United States, and Europe, the conference will addressing not only the specific ways space has been and is being mobilized by scholars and artists, but further, the need for the notion of space itself.

The symposium is made possible by the generous support of the Department of Art History and the Concordia Graduate Students' Association, as well as the hard work and dedication of the Art History Graduate Student Association (AHGSA) members, without whose tireless work and selfless dedication this conference would not be such a success.

The members of the Art History Graduate Student Association extend their warmest thanks to the session moderators, Cafe X, Soupe Café, Pain Doré, Rubiks, Ciel Variable Magazine, and Professor Catherine MacKenzie.