Launched in 2007 and presented in partnership with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, AICA-USA's Distinguished Critic Lecture at The New School is an annual event during which an exemplary writer addresses seminal issues in contemporary art criticism.
Past Distinguished Critic Lecturers
2021 Legacy Russell, On Footnotes
2020 Carolina A. Miranda, Going Local
2019 Courtney J. Martin, In The Context of Criticism
2018 Aruna D'Souza, Writing in the Reparative Mode
2017 Paul Chaat Smith, Thirteen Months in America
2016 Negar Azimi, Nice One: The Wages of Tokenism
2015 Naomi Beckwith, Curating the Errant Form
2014 Carolyn Christoph-Bakargiev
2013 Lucy Lippard, Changing: On Not Being an Art "Critic"
2012 Michelle Kuo, The Critic as Outsider
2011 Peter Schjeldahl, The Critic as Artist, in 2011: Updating Oscar Wilde
2010 Holland Cotter, Art Critic: So What?
2009 Roberta Smith, Criticism: A Life Sentence
2008 Linda Nochlin, Art Criticism and Its Enemies
2007 Michael Brenson, The View from Here
AICA supports art writers around the world through public programs and membership that includes free access to museums across the globe. Since its formation in 1950, AICA has been committed to elevating the values of art criticism as a discipline, and acting on behalf of the physical and moral defense of works of art.
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AICA supports arts writers around the world through public programs and membership that offers free access to museums across the globe. AICA-USA represents the largest national section of AICA International with over 450 distinguished critics, curators, scholars, and art historians working throughout the United States. As part of the international organization, we benefit from a global reach in presence. AICA-USA is intent on international communication, elevating the values of art criticism as a discipline, and acting on behalf of the physical and moral defense of works of art.
AICA's membership card is recognized for entrance to museums around the world. Members are invited to attend the annual AICA International Congress, hosted each year by a different member nation, and the AICA-USA annual meeting, which is held every year in May.
Organized in collaboration with CUE Art Foundation, this program matches emerging critics with experienced AICA-USA members who guide them through the process of writing a catalogue essay.
A partnership between The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant and AICA-USA that gives art writers the opportunity to strengthen their work through one-on-one consultations with leading art critics.
Every fall, in cooperation with the New School's Vera List Center for Art and Politics, AICA-USA presents a Distinguished Critic Lecture.