Waiting and Prepping

Well, Magnetic Woman has officially been out since December, but printing errors (most of the index missing, color plates out of order) caused the book to have to be reprinted, so I am still waiting to get author copies that will be acceptable to send to the various museums and others who helped along the way. It's just hard--bad enough to have my book come out during a pandemic, but then to have to pretty much pull it from circulation and reprint...!

Meanwhile, I've been asking some fellow writers for blurbs for In Search of the Magic Theater, which should be out next summer, and I've been putting together an author website through the Authors Guild. Plus also fiddling with new novels--some of which are close to done (I want to finish at least one this summer) and some of which are just in the formative stages. I can't do a whole lot with them during the semester since with the pandemic I'm doing a lot of extra work on my remote courses, but a little bit here and a little bit there eventually adds up to finished novels.

The Museum Age in Austria-Hungary

And another intriguing book comes to fruition! The Museum Age in Austria-Hungary: Art and Empire in the Long Nineteenth Century, by Matthew Rampley, Markian Prokopovych, and Nóra Veszprémi, has just been published by Penn State University Press. This study of Austria-Hungary's public art museums considers them in the context of European museums and collecting, as well as looking at their place in the Empire's complex cultural politics. From the installation of imperial art collections in the Belvedere Palace in 1784 to the dissolution of Austria-Hungary after the First World War, and focusing on institutions in Vienna, Cracow, Prague, Zagreb, and Budapest, The Museum Age in Austria-Hungary traces museum culture over the long nineteenth century.

For more info, and to order a copy, click here.

Socially Engaged Art History and Beyond

I'm so very pleased to announce a volume edited by two of my friends from graduate school, Cindy Persinger and Azar Rejaie--Socially Engaged Art History and Beyond: Alternative Approaches to the Theory and Practice of Art History. With contributions from an international set of professors, curators, and arts organizers, this book asks "What is socially engaged art history?" and is the first full-length study to focus on the ideas of the growing number of art historians who seek to look beyond the academy in their art-historical praxis.

Presenting arguments for the benefits of community-engaged, applied, and socially engaged art history, the first two sections look at socially engaged art history from theoretical, pedagogical, and contextual perspectives. The concluding section offers case studies that highlight the work that is being done in this area, with the intention of inspiring further theoretical and practical work.

You can read more about it and order here.