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THE 1980'S: AN INTERNET CONFERENCE
October 31 - November 13, 2005

Moderated by Maurice Berger, Senior Fellow, The Vera List Center for Art & Politics, The New School and Curator, Center for Art & Visual Culture, University of Maryland Baltimore County

The 1980s: An Internet Conference explored an extraordinary period of change in American art and life. During this period, American politics and culture underwent dramatic shifts. The election of Ronald Reagan brought about profound changes in Federal policies. And a range of political and cultural groups-crossing all ideologies-emerged as a powerful force in the nation.

The cultural response to these social changes, especially in the arts, was both intense and varied. The 1980s also saw the full flowering of multiculturalism in arts and society, the freer and broader expressions of various ethnic, racial, and sexual groups often excluded from the mainstream. During this period, the so-called "culture wars" also came to full fruition.

The 1980s: An Internet Conference addressed a range of questions central to this extraordinary moment in American art, politics, and ideas:

[1] Why and how did the "multiculturalism" of the period emerge in the 1980s? What was its relationship to the civil rights, feminist, and gay and lesbian rights movements that emerged in the mid-20th century as well as the so-called "pluralist" trend of the 1970s?

[2] To what extent did the modern day "culture wars" begin in the 1980s and what is its continuing effect today?

[3] Did painting die as a relevant artistic medium in the 1980s, as some critics argued at the time? To what extent did photography and other means of mechanical reproduction supplant it?  What role did the growing importance of photography play in the "death of painting" argument, and how did photographers contribute to or position themselves within it?

[4] How did new methodologies in criticism, art history, and cultural writing-including structuralism, post-structuralism, neo-Marxism, feminism, and sub-alternist and gay and lesbian studies-change the nature and style of cultural writing in the United States?

[5] What of the rise of "alternative" and community-based art institutions and activist art groups (such as the Guerilla Girls and Gran Fury) in this period?

[6] To what extent did the "center" of the American art world shift from SoHo to the East Village and to other cities, such as Los Angles, Boston, and Philadelphia?

[7] What is the importance and legacy of the East Village scene as well as the rise of artistic communities outside of New York on American art and ideas?

[8] What was the impact of AIDS on the art and culture of the United States?