Association of Research Institutes in Art History

2013 Prize for Online Publication

The Association of Research Institutes in Art History (ARIAH) has awarded its first Prize for Online Publication to Jacqueline Marie Mussacchio. Mussacchio’s winning article, “Infesting the Galleries of Europe: The Copyist Emma Conant Church in Paris and Rome,” published in Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 10, no. 2 (Autumn 2011), offers a compelling account of the life and work of Emma Conant Church (1831–1893), an American artist who had a successful career painting both original works of art and copies of Old Master paintings. Mussacchio also provides a wealth of information about the fascinating cultural phenomenon of woman copyists, and, in turn, the market for their artful duplicates in the nineteenth century. The article was chosen from fifty-six entries.

Introduced in 2012, the ARIAH Online Publication Award, which carries a $1,000 prize, seeks to encourage and promote high scholarly standards in online publishing in all fields of art history. “We are extremely pleased by the response that we have received to the ARIAH prize,” said Jon Mogul, chair of the Association of Research Institutes in Art History. “The scope and diversity of the submissions signals the coming of age of online journals and the potential richness of digital platforms for presenting innovative research.”

The prize is open to nominations and self-nominations in an open call for entries. The prize is coordinated by a panel comprised of Ariah members. The panel evaluates submissions, and peer review is conducated by the ARIAH membership. In 2013, the panel consisted of Liza Kirwin, Deputy Director, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution; Martina Droth, Associate Director of Research and Curator of Sculpture, Yale Center for British Art; and Klaus Ottmann, Director of the Center for the Study of Modern Art and Curator at Large, The Phillips Collection. The final decision was made with input from the full board of ARIAH delegates.