Moments, Intervals, Epochs: Time in the Visual Arts
50th Annual Cleveland Symposium

Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

Friday and Saturday, November 22-23, 2024

Both as a physical dimension and a subjective concept, time defines human existence and experience, evident in visual production across eras and places. The Department of Art History and Art at Case Western Reserve University invites graduate students to submit paper abstracts for the 2024 Annual Symposium, Moments, Intervals, Epochs: Time in the Visual Arts, by June 30, 2024.

The Cleveland Symposium is one of the longest-running annual art history symposia in the United States organized by graduate students. Held in partnership with the Cleveland Museum of Art as part of the joint program between CWRU and CMA, this year’s symposium welcomes innovative research papers that explore the themes of time and temporality in the creation, reception, and afterlives of objects and events in the visual arts. Submissions may explore aspects of this theme as manifested in any medium as well as in any historical period and geographic location. Different methodological perspectives are welcome.

Potential topics may include, but are not limited to:
● Instants, eternities
● The creation and reception of timekeeping devices and tools such as sundials,
water clocks, astronomical charts, monastic bells, etc.
● Visual methods of categorizing time (e.g. celebrations and events, books of
hours, zodiac charts, ragamala paintings)
● Depictions of time passing
● Temporal considerations for artistic production
● Conservation and preservation of materials
● The importance of time in ritual and religious practice
● Time and the diasporic experience
● Historiographic considerations

Current and recent graduate students in art history and related disciplines are invited to submit an abstract of up to 350-words and a CV to clevelandsymposium@gmail.com by Sunday, June 30, 2024. Selected participants will be notified by the end of July. Presentations should be between 15–18 minutes in length. The symposium is planned as an in-person event, and all participants are expected to attend both days. Speakers will be responsible for their own travel but lodging with CWRU grad students will be arranged for interested participants.

Please send any questions to Cecily Hughes and Madeline Newquist at clevelandsymposium@gmail.com