Saturday, August 20, 2022

Biden Administration Announces New CPAC Members.

 The Biden Administration has made the following announcement:

Cultural Property Advisory Committee
The Cultural Property Advisory Committee reviews requests for import restrictions submitted to the United States by foreign governments, considers proposals to extend existing agreements and emergency actions, carries out ongoing review of current import restrictions, and provides reports of its findings and recommendations to the Department of State.

The Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act established the 11-member presidentially appointed Committee to ensure that the U.S. government receives advice from diverse public interests in cultural property matters. The Committee includes two members who represent the interests of museums; three members who are expert in archaeology, anthropology, ethnology, or related fields; three members who are expert in the international sale of cultural property; and three members who represent the interest of the general public. The Cultural Heritage Center serves as the secretariat for Committee and convenes and facilitates the Committee’s quarterly meetings.

Alexandra Jones, Chair, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
Dr. Alexandra Jones, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Archaeology in the Community, is an education leader focused on community outreach and service. Jones is currently Professor of Practice in History and Archaeology at Goucher College. She worked for PBS’s television show “Time Team America” as the Archaeology Field School Director, where she directed field schools for junior high and high school students at each of the sites for the 2013 season. She obtained dual Bachelor of Arts degrees from Howard University in History and Anthropology in 2001 and a Master of Arts degree in History from Howard University in 2003. She then attended University of California, Berkeley for a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in Anthropology with a concentration in Historical Archaeology in 2010. Jones serves on the Board for the Society of Black Archaeologists, the District of Columbia’s Historic Preservation Review Board, the Board of Directors of the St. Croix Archaeological Society, and is an Academic Trustee for the Archaeological Institute of America.

Alex W. Barker, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
Alex W. Barker is a museum anthropologist and archaeologist focusing on issues of cultural heritage, iconography, and the rise of social complexity. A graduate of the Getty Museum Leadership Institute, Barker serves as Director of the Arkansas Archeological Survey, and has previously held leadership positions at the University of Missouri Museum of Art and Archaeology, the Milwaukee Public Museum, and the Dallas Museum of Natural History. He has experience in both domestic and international cultural property issues, served on the national Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Review Committee from 2011-2015, and coordinated an international antiquities documentation project in collaboration with the Capitoline Museum in Rome. He is a peer-elected Expert Member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites International Scientific Committee on Archaeology and Heritage Management and the International Scientific Committee on Earthen Architectural Heritage. He has received national awards for research from the Society for American Archaeology and for service from the Society for American Archaeology and the American Alliance of Museums. Barker is a former President of both the Council for Museum Anthropology and the American Anthropological Association. Barker received a BA from Marquette University, MA from Wichita State University, and PhD from the University of Michigan.

Andrew Lamarche Connors, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
Andrew Connors is currently the Director of the Albuquerque Museum, where he previously served as Curator of Art from 2009 through 2018. Connors’ former roles include Chair of the Visual Arts Department at Albuquerque Academy (2006-2009), Senior Curator at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque (1999-2006), and Associate Curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (1984-1999) where he developed collections and exhibitions on Hispanic, Latino, Native American, and Folk Art. He studied Art History and Architecture at Yale University and did his graduate work in Folklore and American Studies at George Washington University.  He has curated dozens of exhibitions, primarily in the areas of United States Latino Art, Colonial Art from Puerto Rico, Contemporary Art, and Graffiti. He recently completed an exhibition and book on the history of jewelry in New Mexico from prehistory to the present, the first exhibition in a series of medium-focused historical survey exhibitions on New Mexican art that will include ceramics and textiles. As a lecturer, guest teacher, and consultant, he has worked with numerous organizations including the National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Office of Folklife Programs, Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, Chicano Studies Department at the University of California Los Angeles, Getty Center for Education in the Arts, and the Royal Government of Bhutan.

Michael Findlay, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
Michael Findlay is a Director of Acquavella Galleries which specializes in Impressionist, Modern, and Post-War Contemporary Art and presents major exhibitions of artists such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, James Rosenquist, Lucian Freud, and Wayne Thiebaud. Findlay directed one of the first galleries in SoHo in Manhattan in the 1960s, which pioneered the work of artists like John Baldessari, Hannah Wilke, and Sean Scully and secured portrait commissions for Andy Warhol. He was a Senior Director at Christie’s auction house and sat on the Board of Directors from 1984 to 2000. He has served on the Art Advisory Panel for the Internal Revenue Service since 2001, serves on the Board of the New York Foundation for the Arts and the British Schools and Universities Foundation, and is on the Advisory Council of the Appraisers Association of America. Findlay frequently lectures at museums and universities in the U.S. and overseas. He has published poetry and essays in journals, periodicals, and exhibition catalogues, as well as two best-selling books, Seeing Slowly—Looking at Modern Art and The Value of Art. He is married to the contemporary quilt artist Victoria Findlay Wolfe and has two children.

Cynthia Denise Herbert, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
Cynthia D. Herbert, AAA, President of Appretium Appraisal Services LLC, is a Certified Member and past President of the Board of the Appraisers Association of America. She has appraised an extensive range of fine and decorative art, antiques, and residential contents/personal property. Herbert is an instructor at the Appraisal Institute of America and the Appraisers Association of America. Additionally, through The Appraisal Foundation, she is an AQB Certified USPAP Instructor (Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice). Herbert graduated with a BA from Georgetown University and an MA from New York University.

Nii Otokunor Quarcoopome, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
Nii Quarcoopome is the curator of African art and department head of Africa, Oceania, and Indigenous Americas at the Detroit Institute of Arts. He received his doctorate in African art history in 1993 from the University of California, Los Angeles. After years of college teaching, he entered the museum field in 2000, beginning at Newark Museum before joining Detroit Institute of Arts in 2002. Between 2012 and 2016, Quarcoopome’s concurrent appointment at the Nelson-Atkins Museum and the Detroit Institute of Arts made him the first shared curator in American history. His exhibition, “Through African Eyes: The European in African Art, 1500-Present,” earned a National Endowment of the Humanities implementation grant and the American Association of Museums’ recognition for excellence. His academic record boasts several prestigious postdoctoral fellowships, including the Fulbright and J. Paul Getty.

Miriam T. Stark, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
Dr. Miriam Stark, an anthropological archeologist, is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and has worked in Cambodia since 1996. With field experience in North America, the Philippines, Thailand, and Cambodia, Stark has published more than 100 articles and chapters on Southeast Asian and North American archaeology. A specialist in ancient ceramics, salient themes in her research include urbanization, ceramic production and distribution, and power relations in premodern Cambodia. Stark’s Cambodian archaeological research program integrates research with capacity-building in collaboration with Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and its various units. She has worked with nearly 100 Cambodian students, interns, and archaeological professionals since launching her first field-based project in the country, and continues to mentor early career archaeologists in Cambodia.  Stark became the Director for the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies in 2018 and is currently a Fulbright Senior Specialist and an Honorary Research Associate with the University of Sydney. Stark earned her doctorate in Anthropological Archaeology at the University of Arizona and held a postdoctoral fellowship in materials analysis at the Smithsonian. She has served as a board member for the Society for American Archaeology and currently serves on 13 editorial boards for archaeology and Southeast Asia-focused journals.

William A. K. Titelman, Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee
William Titelman has had a highly varied career, while maintaining a lifelong passion for art, history, archeology, anthropology, and antiquities. He received his J.D. from The Dickinson School of Law over a decade after his B.A. in philosophy and art history from Washington and Jefferson College and Brown University. In between degrees, he worked in senior executive capacities in Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp’s Administration and served as a civilian volunteer in Israel during the Yom Kippur War. Titelman has always championed the rights of injured victims, consumers, workers, and shareholders. He served for a decade as Legislative Counsel to the PA Trial Lawyers Association, never losing a legislative battle. Titelman joined a business and commercial law firm, starting its Harrisburg office and its government affairs, legislative, and administrative law practices. He has spearheaded numerous legislative accomplishments, including the enactment of Pennsylvania’s Business Corporation Law, brownfields legislation, electric utility deregulation, and the state’s seatbelt law. He led a national campaign opposing a notorious anti-takeover bill. Titelman was a principal in developing the Commonwealth Riverfront Center in Harrisburg, served as Executive Vice President at one of the nation’s largest drugstore chains, and established the public pension fund and labor union practice for a plaintiffs securities litigation firm. He founded Pennsylvanians for Gun Control to support passage of the Brady Bill, was a founding board member of the Israel Policy Forum, and has served on numerous non-profit boards.

A Pennsylvanian, Titelman was born in Altoona, grew up in Pittsburgh, lived in Harrisburg for 30 years, then moved to Washington, DC, before retiring in Florida. During the last nine years he has also spent much of his time living and learning in Greece.

For the White House Press release, see 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/19/president-biden-announces-key-appointments-to-boards-and-commissions-5/

Who do these new members replace?  While not clear from the release, it appears the following current members will no longer serve on the committee:

Public: Stephen Passentino (former Chair)

Archaeology/Anthropology: Ricardo St. Hilaire;  Joan Connelly; and Rachael Fulton Brown

Museums:  Karol Wight 

International Sale of Cultural Property:  Mark Hendrick and David Tamasi.


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