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Darby English Named New Starr Director
On April
24, 2013, The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute announced the
appointment of Darby English, associate professor in the Department of Art
History at the University of Chicago, to serve as the next Starr Director of
the Research and Academic Program (RAP). English will lead the program’s
international agenda of intellectual events and collaborations and will oversee
the Clark’s library and its active residential scholars’ program, all based on
the Institute’s 140-acre campus.
“Darby
English brings a dynamic perspective to the work of the Clark’s Research and
Academic Program, rooted in his knowledge of the field of art history—both its
traditions and its new critical perspectives,” said Michael Conforti, director
of the Clark. “He will build upon the Clark’s extraordinary record of
accomplishment achieved during Michael Ann Holly’s fourteen years as director.”
In June
2012, Michael Ann Holly announced plans to conclude her tenure as Starr
Director in the summer of 2013. Holly is widely recognized for her leadership
in conceptualizing and pioneering RAP’s international series of programs and
events. She will remain active in numerous Clark programs and activities in
Williamstown and New York.
“The Clark
is both a meeting ground and a forum for exchange and debate,” said English.
“The Research and Academic Program is fueled by the international scholars who
come to Williamstown as Fellows and as participants in its scholarly programs
and by its many collaborations with academic programs across the world. I
couldn't be more thrilled by this opportunity to enhance the Clark’s
long-established reputation for intellectual leadership in the field.”
Dr.
English graduated from Williams College in 1996 with a degree in art history
and philosophy and earned a doctorate in visual and cultural studies from the
University of Rochester in 2002. He has served on the University of Chicago’s
faculty since 2003, teaching modern and contemporary art and cultural studies.
He served as the assistant director of the Research and Academic Program from
1999 through 2003.
English is
the author of How to See a Work of Art in
Total Darkness (MIT Press, 2007), which has been called a “groundbreaking
and lucid book [that] expands the social and intellectual context for recent
African-American art.” [Maurice Berger, research professor, University of
Maryland Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture]. Dr. English is also a
co-editor of Kara Walker: Narratives of a
Negress (MIT Press, 2003; republished Rizzoli, 2007). He is currently
completing work on a new book, 1971: A
Year in the Life of Color, which studies social experiments with modernist
art undertaken over a period just prior to that year.
He is the
recipient of fellowships, grants, and awards from the Institute for Advanced
Study, the National Humanities Center, the National Endowment for the
Humanities, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/Creative Capital
Foundation, the Getty Research Institute, and the College Art Association,
among others. In 2010, English received Chicago’s Llewellyn John and Harriet
Manchester Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the
nation’s oldest such prize.
A
seven-member search committee, led by Charles W. “Mark” Haxthausen, the Robert
Sterling Clark Professor of Art History at Williams College, oversaw the
international search that resulted in English’s selection.
“We had an
extraordinarily strong pool of highly qualified candidates for the Starr
Directorship,” Haxthausen said, “which underscores the respect and appreciation
the scholarly community holds for RAP’s role as a major international forum for
the discipline.”
The Clark
is one of the few institutions in the world with a dual mission as both an art
museum and an independent center for research and higher education in the
visual arts. The Research and Academic Program is internationally recognized as
one of the leading centers for research in the visual arts and has established
collaborations with partner institutions including the Getty Research
Institute; the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art (France); Institute of Art
History of the Estonian Academy of Arts; Power Institute at the University of
Sydney; University of the Philippines Diliman; Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong);
Asian Civilizations Museum (Singapore); and the University of Witwatersrand
(South Africa), among others.
In
addition to hosting its fellowship program on the Clark’s Williamstown campus,
RAP maintains an active series of conferences, colloquia, symposia, and
scholarly conversations presented at venues around the globe. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Getty
Foundation have provided generous support to these programs. The Manton Foundation established an
endowment to support the activities of the RAP program in 2007; in 2008, the
Starr Foundation endowed the program’s directorship.
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